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DuBi breTis else laboro, obseuras iio, 



EHEA nXEPOENTA, 



OR THE 



DIYERSIONS OE PUELEY. 



BT 



JOHN HORNE TOOKE. 

WITH NUMEROUS ADDITIONS FROM THE COPY PREPARED BY 
THE AUTHOR FOR REPUBLICATION: 



TO "WHICH IS ANNEXED HIS 

LETTER TO JOHN DUNNING, ESQ. 

REVISED AND CORRECTED, WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES, 

BY RICHARD TAYLOR, P.S.A., F.L.S. 




LONDON: t J 

WILLIAM TEGG, 85, QUEEN STREET, CHEAPSIDE. 

1860, 



^' 



o^ 



V 



LONDON : 

PRINTED BY WILLIAM NICHOLS, 

32, LONDON WALL. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Editor's Preface v 

Editor's Additional Notes vi 

PART I. 

CHAP. 

Introduction -. 1 

I. Of the Division or Distribution of Language 9 

II. Some Consideration of Mr. Locke's Essay 15 

IIL Of tlie Parts of Speeck 23 

lY. Of the Noun 26 

Y. Of the Article and Interjection 29 

Advertisement 37 

YL Of the Word that 41 

Advertisement 50 

YIL Of Conjunctions 52 

YIIL Etymology of the English Conjunctions 78 

IX. Of Prepositions 154 

X. Of Adverbs 251 

PAET II. 

CHAP. 

L The Eights of Man 301 

IL Of Abstraction 311 

III. The same subject continued 326 

lY. The same subject continued 365 

Y. The same subject continued 604 

YL Of Adjectives 624 

YIL Of Participles 647 

YIIL The same subject continued 658 

Appendix — Letter to Mr. Dunning 685 

■ Index 725 

a 2 



y 



THE EDITOR'S PREFACE 

TO THE EDITION OF 1829. 



In preparing for the press and printing this enlarged 
edition of Mr. Home Tooke's Diversions of Pnrley, an 
undertaking assigned to me by the Publisher, on his 
becoming possessed, by assignment from the Author's 
representatives, of the copy containing his last cor- 
rections and additions, it has been my endeavour in 
the first place to remove the many inaccuracies of the 
former Edition by a collation of the citations in which 
the work abounds with the originals so far as they were 
within my reach ; and, next, to incorporate in it, as 
well as I was able, the new materials in such a manner 
as should not interfere with the integrity of the former 
text. As these additions, written in the Author's in- 
terleaved copy, and which especially in the Second 
Part are very abundant, were wholly without any re- 
ferences connecting them with the text, and sometimes 
written at a distance of several pages from the passages 
to which they seemed to belong, I must beg the Reader's 
indulgence if I should at any time have failed in this 
part of my task ; reminding him that, all the new mat- 
ter being distinguished by brackets^ [], he may use 
his own judgement as to its relation to the text. 
A work of such celebrity, connected with studies to 



^ The brackets in p. 301 — 212, do not, as elsewhere, denote new- 
matter. 



VI ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

which I had been much attached, having been thus 
intrusted to my care, I was tempted, during its pro- 
gress, to hazard a few notes in my capacity of Editor : 
and though it may have been presumptuous in me to 
place any observations or conjectures of mine on the 
pages of Mr. Tooke, yet I must plead in excuse the in- 
terest excited by the investigations which they contain. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 

BY THE EDITOE.^ 



P. 38. GEIMGEIBBER. 

" Mankind in general are not sufficiently aware that words 
without meaning, or of equivocal meaning, are the everlasting 
engines of fraud and injustice : and that the grimgribber ^ of 
Westminster Hall is a more fertile, and a^ much more formida- 
ble, source of imposture than the abracadabra of magicians." — 
Mr. Tooke makes this remark after having stated that his first 
publication on language was occasioned by his having ^^ been 
made the victim '^ in a Court of Law '' of Two Prepositions and 
a" Conjunction,''^ of and concerning, and that, " the abject 

The number of these notes has been considerably increased in the 
present Edition. 

I know not whence Mr. Tooke got this word, which was also used 
by Mr. Bentham, to mean, I suppose, the jargon used as a cover for 
legal sophistry. It may be connected with Grmoire, respecting which 
Dr. Percy has the following note : — " The word Gramarye, which occurs 
several times in the foregoing poem (King Estmere), is probably a corrup- 
tion of the French word Grimoire, which signifies a Conjuring Book in 
the old French romances, if not the art of necromancy itself." — Vol. i. p. 
77. Perhaps both are referable to ' Grammar,' which might have been 
looked upon as a kind of magic. The French Grimande is a grammar- 
school boy. IMay not also the Scotch Glamer, Glamour, a charm, have 
the 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. Vll 

instruments of his civil extinction." In a recent case the 
Preposition upon seems to have played a similar part in the 
hands of some who '' perche non erauo grammatici, eran percib 
cattivi legisti." 

The point at issue was the meaning of upon, as a preposition 
of Time, that is, as employed to express the relation as to time 
between two acts ; the Declaration now required of magistrates, 
&c., by the Act 9th Geo. IV., being directed to be subscribed 
" within one calendar month next before, or upon admission to 
office." If then the Declaration shall not have been subscribed 
within the space of one month next before admission, it is to be 
subscribed upon admission. '^ The words ' next before,^ of 
course," says the Attorney-General, "are clear; next before 
must make it antecedent to his admission." — Q. B. p. 68.^ And 
let us be thankful that next before is still permitted to mean 
antecedent. But alas for the doubts and difficulties in which 
the other alternative is involved ! Does upon also mean 
antecedent to ? or subsequent ? 

" That ' upon ' may mean before there can be 7io doubt at all ; " says 
the Attorney- General. — Q,. B. p. 16. " Now here it is ' i(/pon his admis- 
sion ' that he is to do this. I say that that is ' before he is admitted.' " 
" I do not say that ' upon ' is always synonymous with ' before.' It may 
possibly be aftei', it may be concurrent, but it may bejt^rio?*."^ — ib. p. 15. 
" One of your Lordships mentioned," adds Sir J. Campbell, " looking to 
this very Eule, that it was drawn up ' upon reading the affidavit of 
David Salomons.' The affidavit had been read before your Lordships 
granted the Eule. Now your Lordships will read ' upon ' as meaning be- 
fore, if in that way the intention of the legislature will best be effected." 
— p. 16. " Lord Denman. — ' U^on reading the affidavits ' is 'after read- 
ing the affidavits.' Then if the t;wo are analogous, 'upon admission ' is 
' after admission ; ' so that it will be after his admission that he is to 
make the Declaration. Attorney-General. — Suppose it were, that 
upon making the Declaration he is to be admitted. Mr. Justice Pat- 
TESON. — That would be intelligible : and then I should say the Decla- 
ration would be first. Mr. Justice Coleridge. — But here it is, that 

upon admission he is to make the Declaration: You say, it means 

before. Eead it so ; then it is ' shall within one month 7iext before, or 
before his admission.' " — Q. B. 17, 18. 

^ The extracts marked Q. B. are from the arguments in the Queen's 
Bench, 1838; and those marked Exch. are from the Proceedings in the 
Exchequer Chamber on a Writ of Error, 1839; both printed from the 
Notes of Mr, Gurney. 

^ Sir E. Pollock says, with perfect truth, it has " no meaning in John- 
son bearing the import of before'' 



Vlll ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

" Sir P. Pollock. — Now, my Lords, the question is, What is the 

meaning of the word ' upon ? ' In the first place, in plain 

English, among a number of meanings given to ' upon ' — upwards of 
twenty, I think. — Mr. Justice Littledale. — Twenty-three, I think: 
and there may be a great many more enumerated from Johnson's Dic- 
tionary.^ Mr. Justice Coleridge. — It could hardly mean either inde- 
finitely before, or indefinitely after, for that would be no time; then 
you must add something to the words before or after. Sir F. Pollock. 
— My Lord, there is no meaning in Johnson bearing the import of before. 
Mr. Justice Littledale. — There is one which means ' concurrently : ' ^ 
that is, I think, the eighteenth. Sir P. Pollock. — There is one which 
is 'in consequence of;' then if it is to be in consequence of admission, 
admission is to come before it. There is another, ' supposing a thing 
granted : ' here admission was not granted, but refused. There is an- 
other, *in consideration of,' which certainly does not import that the act 
done in consideration, is to go before the act in consideration of which 
it is done ; and there is another, w^hich is ' at the time of, or on occasion 
of.' Mr. Justice Littledale. — That is the one I meant to refer to. Sir 
F. Pollock. — But there is a general observation in Johnson in con- 
nection with all these. ' It ahoays retains an intimation^ more or less 
obsci(?'e, of some substratum, sometJiing precedent.' Now, my Lord, let 
us see what are the legal instances io which the word 'upon' is used. 
I am quite surprised, I own, that my learned friend should refer to 
the expression ' on payment of costs,' and ' upon reading the affidavit,' 
to show that the admission is to come a,fter, because the payment of costs 
comes before; and it is the second time ^ he has fallen into the error. 
Says my learned friend, ' upon the payment of costs ' means that pay- 
ment of costs is to come first, and therefore ' on admission ' means that 
admission is to come last ; that is really my learned friend's argument. 
. . . ' Upon reading the affidavit ' certainly imports that the rule is granted 
after that; and that is one instance in which it is impossible not to 
perceive that ' upon ' must import the precedence of the act which is so 
introduced." — Q. B. pp. 39, 40. 

^ Several of these are, as is usual with Johnson, meanings not of the 
word he explains, but of some other word in the sentence : thus, 2. 
Thrown over the body. " Th^'own her night gown upon her." 3. By 
way of imprecation. " My blood upon your heads ; " — " Sorrow on thee." 
5. Hardship or mischief. " If we would neither impose upon ourselves." 
In these it is clear that throw, body, hnprecation, mischief, blood, or 
sorroiv, are no meanings of upon. As well might it be said that upon 
means blessing, " Blessings on thee ! " — or i?ik, " Ink upon paper." 

'^ The example quoted is from Swift : " The king upon this news 
marched." Tlie news obviously preceded the marching; and they were 
not concurrent. — Ed. 

* It will be seeu in the subsequent proceedings, that Sir J. Campbell 
docs not abandon this mode of reasoning, by which it might as well be 
proved that after means be/ore. " B comes after A : then A comes 
diforr^ R :_'I'i;,.,vr(,r(» nffrr means before.—^. E.'D." 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. IX 

Notwithstanding Sir J. Campbeirs suggestion that the law 
was to be expounded '^'^ without very nicely scanning or criti- 
cizing the language employed/' — p. 24; and "without entering 
into any very nice criticism of the words/' — p. Go ; " the lan- 
guage employed " being " not very happily selected/^ p. 68^ the 
Court of Queen's Bench gave the following clear and straight- 
forward judgement : — 

" We are of opinion that, as the Declaration is to be made upon ad- 
mission, the Admission is the first thing- to be done." — Judgement of the 
Court, delivered by Lord Chief Justice Denman, p. 54. 

This judgement has^ however/ since been reversed by the ^ 

other Judges in the Exchequer Chamber, and the question 
decided on grounds quite independent of philology. Sir J. 
Campbell thus objects to it, in the proceedings on the Writ of 
Error, 1839 :— 

" The effect of this decision of the Court of Queen's Bench is, that a 
Jew or a Mahometan may be Lord Mayor of London." — Exch. p. 12. 
" My Lords, can your Lordships suppose that those who framed that Act 
of Parliament really had it in contemplation that there might be a mayor 
of any corporation in England who was a Mahometan or a Pagan ? " — 

p. *71 "There certainly was the greatest anxiety that no one 

should be admitted until he had made a declaration in the form given ; 
so that no one who was not a Christian — that neither Jew nor Papist nor 
Infidel — should be allowed to be admitted." — p. 12. 

" Sir P. Pollock. — My learned friend seems to me to have a pious 
and a Christian horror of a Jew wearing the Lord Mayor's chain : " yet 

"a Jew may be Lord Chancellor, Lord Treasurer " — Exch. '^. 37. 

*' The Court of Queen's Bench have chosen to put their Judgement upon 
the broad plain ground ; they say ' upon ' means after ; and we can give 
no sensible construction to the Act unless w^e so read it." — p. 59. 
" There is nothing in which the dexterity of an advocate is so conspicuous 
as in turning the question. In the Court below, my learned friend said 
the question was this, — whether corporations should be inundated with 
Jews, Turks, and Atheists : at any rate, my Lords, that is not the legal 
question." — p. 70. 

"Att. Gen. — I acknowledge that my learned friend will find no diffi- 
culty in citing instances where ' upon ' means after ; where ' upon ' doing 
an act means after doing the act ; but there are others where ' upon ' 
doing the act means before the act is done. Suppose a new trial granted 
' upon ' payment of costs ; the costs are to be paid before the new trial 
takes place. Sir P. Pollock. — The payment of costs comes first : — and 
here we say the admission comes first." — Exch. p. 27. 

" Att. Gen. — There are, I think, thirty meanings given in Johnson's 
Dictionary to the word 'upon.' Baron Aldekson. — If one man is 
to do one thing upon another man's doing another, then each is to do his 

b 



X ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

part." ^ — p. 30. " Sir F. Pollock. — My Lords, I say that the meaning 
of the Act is, that ' upon ' means oflerj and if you are to take it that it 
is co7icurrently, and at the same time, and on the same occasion, still that 
that which is to be done upon something else taking place, is, in point of 
order, to come after it." — p. 55. "The law says that ?<joow conviction 
the party shall be hanged. Does that mean that he is to suffer the 
penalty before or after conviction? The word upon occurs more fre- 
quently in that way than in any other ; ' upon refusal,' ' upon receipt.' 

Mr. Justice Vaughan. — A reward to be paid 'upon conviction.' 

Lord Chief Justice Tindal. — A copyhold fine is payable upon 

admission ; which means, and is decided to mean, afte?' admission. 
There the admission is the consideration upon which the fine becomes 
due. You will however find it have a double meaning in many cases. 
Sir F. Pollock. — It never means before. Baron Alderson. — It may 

mean at the time ' upon admission ' must mean before, or immediately 

after, or at the time." 1 ! — p. 57. 

Lord Chief Justice Tindal. — " The words of the Act, ' upon his 
admission,' do not, as it appears to us, mean after the admission has 
taken place, but upon the occasion of, or, at the time of, admission." 
" We hold it to be unnecessary to refer to instances of the legal meaning 
of the word ' upon,' which in different cases may undoubtedly (! !) either 
mean before the act done to which it relates, or simultaneously tvith, or 
after it." — p. 93. "We therefore think that the Judgement of the 
Court of Queen's Bench ought to be reversed." — Judgement delivered by 
Lord Chief Justice Tindal.— -E'a^c?^. pp. 93, 96. 

Should the philologist complain that this Decision is in 
complete violation of the nature and use of language^ let him 
remember that the cause vv^as removed out of the province of 
grammar ; the great consideration being, not the true and plain 
meaning of words, but how religious exclusions should best be 
perpetuated. And although upon was pro hac vice tortured 
and sacrificed, Grammarians will nevertheless recur to the 
manifest truth, that, when used to mark the relation of Time 
between two acts not simultaneous, the act which is governed 
by the preposition is always that which is first in order. 

P. 79. 

IF. — The derivation of IF from the imperative Give, seems 
very plausible so long as we limit our view to the English form 
of the word, especially as taken in connexion with the Scotch 
GIN, supposed to be the participle Given. But we cannot arrive 
at a correct opinion without viewing the word in the forms in 



Undoubtedly : But in what order ? 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. XI 

which it appears in the cognate dialects, and which do not seem 
at all referable to the verb To Give. 

Thus, in Icelandic we have ef, si, modo, with the verb efa, if a, du- 
bitare ; and the substantive efi, dubium, and its derivatives. See 
Ihre, V. Jef, dubium. In old German it is ibu, ipu^ ube, oba^ jef, fee, 
and in modern German ob, in the sense only of an, num, all of which 
must surely be identified with the Gothic IKAj ^-'^AIj ^^^ 
Q/vK^Ij which latter Grimm (Deutsche Grammatik, vol. iii. p. 284.) 
considers as a compound of ja and ibdi, and supposes that the sense of 
doubt is included in the Gothic word, and that ibdi may be the dative 
of a substantive 'iba, dubium, with which also he conjectures some ad- 
verbs may be connected (ib. p. 110.). In old German, he remarks, 
the substantive iba, dubium, whose regular dative is ib^c, was preserved 
in the phrases, mit ibo, due iba, p. 150, 157. Wachter gives the same 
accountj and adds, " Hsec particula apud Francos eleganter transit in 
substantivum ibu, et tunc dubium significat : " as in the Athanasian 
Creed, ano ibu in euuidku faruui?'dkit, " without if he shall perish ever- 
lastingly : " — that being considered a matter of so great certainty as not 
to admit of a doubt.-^ In the A.-S. gip, Grimm considers the 5 prefixed 
as representing the Gothic Q in jabai ; and the old Frisic has ief, 
gef, iefta, iof, which Wiarda considers the same with the Francic oba 
and ibu. 

Mr. Eichardson, in his lately published Dictionary, and the writers 
of several recent grammars, implicitly foUow Mr. Tooke in this ety- 
mology of IF, adopted from Skinner ; but which appears more than 
doubtful, and inconsistent with the Teutonic or Scandinavian forms of 
the word. — See Jamieson, Hermes Scythicus, p. 122. 

P. 83. 
The following particulars of the author of Criticisms on the 
Diversions of Purley, published under the assumed name of 
I. Cassander, are taken from a memoir in the Gentleman^s and 
Monthly Magazines for 1804, probably written by the late 
Mr. William Taylor of Norwich, the authenticity of which I 
have no doubt may be relied on. I well remember Mr. 
Bruckner, who had been my Father^ s preceptor in the French 
and Dutch languages ; and I believe Mr. Tooke had no other 
reason for coupling him with Mr. Windham, (*^ my Norwich 
critics, for I shall couple them," see pp. 123, 126 and Note, 



^ See Dr. Hook's Letter quoted at .p. 186. 

b 2 



XU ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

132, &c.) than that he resided in the city for which Mr. 
Windham was returned to Parliament. 

^'The Rev. John Bruckner, born in the island of Cadsand, 
1726 — educated at Franeker and Leyden, where he obtained 
a pastorship, and profited by the society of Hemsterhuis, 
Valckenaer, and the elder Schultens. In 1753 he became 
minister of the Walloon Church at Norwich, and afterwards 
of the Dutch— till his death. May 1.2, 1804. In 1767 was 
printed at Leyden his ^ Tkeorie du Systeme Animal/ in the 7th 
and 10th chapters of the second part of which there is much 
anticipation of the sentiments lately evolved and corroborated 
in the writings of Mr. Malthus. 

^'^In 1790 he published, under the name Cassander, from 
his birthplace, those Criticisms on the Diversions of Purley 
which attracted some hostile flashes from Mr. Home Tooke in 
his subsequent quarto edition. This pamphlet displays a pro- 
found and extensive knowledge of the various Gothic dialects, 
and states (p. 16.) that the same theory of Prepositions and 
Conjunctions so convincingly applied in the Epea Pteroenta 
to the Northern languages, had also been taught concerning 
the Hebrew and other dead languages by Schultens." 

Mr. Bruckner can hardly be considered an opponent of Mr. 
Tooke, as might be inferred from the style in which he is an- 
swered by the latter. He imputes a want of care, of know- 
ledge, or of success in some particular instances, (and, indeed, 
Mr. Tooke made no pretensions to much acquaintance with the 
northern languages, see p. 251,) but concurs with him in the 
main, and bestows great praise on his work, assigning as his 
motive for publication a regret ^' that a performance, in other 
respects valuable, and well calculated to open the eyes of the 
learner with regard to false systems, should remain in its pre- 
sent state, and not be rendered as perfect as the nature of 
the subject will permit." 

To the same purpose he adds, in p. 5 : — " You have not 
given your system the consistency and solidity of which it is 
susceptible, and which you were very able to give it, had you 
been willing to bestow a little more thought upon it." At 
p. 22, alluding to some alleged mistakes, '^ 1 have been ex- 
amining your outworks again ; and, as I find them absolutely 
untenable, I would advise you to abandon them in case of a 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. Xlll 

Tegular attack^ and to sliut yourself up in your capital work, 
which is of good design and workmanship, and will stand the 
best battering-ram in the worlds provided, however, you bestow 
a little repairing upon it. In what follows, I shall point out 
to you the places where this is most wanted/^ And in p. 73, 
" I have read with pleasure, and even with some advantage, 
your ninth and tenth chapters, which treat of prepositions and 
adverbs. The light in which you place these parts of speech 
is new, and well calculated to turn the attention of the stu- 
dious in general from idle and endless subtleties to the 
contemplation of truth, and acquisition of real knowledge.^^ 
^*^ Truth, as you say, has been improperly imagined at thq 
bottom of a well : it lies much nearer the surface, f Had Mr. 
Harris and others, instead of diving deeper than they had oc- 
casion into Aristotelian mysteries, contented themselves with 
observing plain facts, they would soon have perceived, that 
prepositions and conjunctions were nothing more than nouns 
and verbs in disguise; and the chapter of the distribution and 
division of language would have been settled and complete long 
ago, to the contentment and joy of every body : whereas, in the 
way they proceeded, their labour was immense, and the benefit 
equal to nothing." — p. 77. 

I may with propriety add here a candid estimate of Mr. 
Tooke^s work from the Annual Review for 1805. 

'^ Few good books have been written on the theory of lan- 
guage : this is one of them. Philosophic linguists have mostly 
pursued the Aristotelic, the antient, method of reasoning, a 
priori ; they have rarely recurred to the Baconian, the modern, 
method of reasoning, a posteriori. They have examined ideas 
instead of pheenomena, suppositions instead of facts. The only 
method of ascertaining in what manner speech originates, is to 
inquire historically into the changes which single words under- 
go ; and from the mass of instances, within the examination of 
our experience, to infer the general law of their formation. 
This has been the process of Mr. Home Tooke. ■ He first 
examined our prepositions, conjunctions, and adverbs, all those 
particles of speech foolishly called insignificant, and showed that ■, 
they were either nouns or verbs in disguise, which had lost the 
habit of inflection. He now examines our adjectives and abstract , 



XIV ' ' ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

substantives^ and shows that they too are all referable to nouns 
or verbs, describing sensible ideas. 

'^Whether this opinion is strictly new^ scarcely merits in- 
quiry j it was never applied before on so grand a scale^ and in so 
instructive a manner.^^ 

After mentioning the suggestions of Schultens, Lennep_, and 
Gregory Sharpe_, the writer proceeds : — " Such scattered solitary 
observations may have prepared and do confirm the comprehen- 
sive generalizations of Mr. Home Tooke; but to him the 
English language owes the pristine introduction of just prin- 
ciples_, and a most extensive, learned, and detailed application of 
them to the etymology of its terms. He has laid the ground- 
work of a good Dictionary.^' 

'' The good sense with which all the phsenomena are ex- 
plained, the sagacity with which the difficulties are investigated, 
the force of intellect displayed in every conjecture, these con- 
stitute the essence -of the treatise, and will cause it to outlast 
the compilations of a more laborious erudition. This work is 
the most valuable contribution to the philosophy of language 
which our literature has produced ; the writer may be charac- 
terized in those words which Lye applied to Wachter : ad or- 
nandam, quam nactus est, Spartam, instructissimus venit : in 
intima artis adyta videtur penetrasse, atque inde protulisse 
quodcunque potuerit illustrando ipsius proposito inservire.^' — 
p. 675. 

The following note by Mr. Price, the late editor of 'Warton^s 
History of English Poetry, 1824, records the judgement, not 
exactly in accordance with the preceding, of one whose inti- 
mate knowledge of northern and early English philology gives 
a value to his observations. Having occasion to notice that 
Mr. Tooke had overlooked the use of the genitive absolute, 
Mr. Price adds : " Nor is it mentioned here with a view to 
disparage the great and important services of this distinguished 
scholar; but as a collateral proof, if such be wanting, of his 
veracity in declaring, that all his conclusions were the result 
of reasoning a prioi^i, and that they were formed long before 
he could read a line of Gothic or Anglo-Saxon. To those who 
will be at the trouble of examining Mr. Tooke' s theory and 
his own peculiar illustration of it, it will soon be evident that 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. XV 

though no objections can be offered to his general results, yet 
his details, more especially those contained in his first volume, 
may be contested nearly as often as they are admitted. The 
cause of this will be found in what Mr. Tooke has himself re- 
lated, of the manner in which those results were obtained, 
combined with another circumstance which he did not think it 
of importance to communicate, but which as he certainly did 
not feel its consequences he could have no improper motive for 
concealing. The simple truth is, that Mr. Tooke, with whom, 
like every man of an active mind, idleness, — in his case 
perhaps the idleness of a busy political life, — ranked as an 
enjoyment, only investigated his system at its two extremes, — 
the root and summit, — the Anglo-Saxon, and English from the 
thirteenth century downwards ; and having satisfied himself, on 
a review of its condition in these two stages, that his previous 
convictions were on the whole correct, he abandoned all fur- 
ther examination of the subject. The former I should feel 
disposed to believe he chiefly studied in Lye^s vocabulary; of 
the latter he certainly had ample experience. But in passing 
over the intervening space, and we might say for want of a due 
knowledge of those numerous laws which govern the Anglo- 
Saxon grammar, — and no language can be familiar to us 
without a similar knowledge, — a variety of the fainter lines 
and minor features all contributing to give both form and ex- 
pression to our language entirely escaped him ; and hence the 
facilities with which his system has been made the subject of 
attack, though in fact it is not the system which has been 
vulnerable, but Mr. Tooke^s occasionally loose application of 
it. This note might have been spared; but it has been so 
much the fashion of late to feed upon what Leisewitz would 
call '^the corse of Mr. Tooke's reputation,' that I may stand 
excused for seeking this opportunity of offering a counter 
statement to some opinions of rather general currency." Vol. 
ii. p. 493. 

P. 100. 
THOUGH is placed by Grimm in his class of pronominal 
adverbs, as being one of the numerous particles originating 
from the demonstrative pronoun that, cJj/VT/V, on which, and 
their relation to each other and their common source, he treats 
fully in vol. iii. p. 165-177; — see also p. 285. Mr. Bruckner 



XTl ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

objects that 'Seali;, the A.-S. form, is not tlie imperative of 
Dajziaii; and indeed Mr. Tooke has not shown how his ety- 
mology of though is applicable to the forms of the word in the 
cognate languages, and which must have had the same origin. 
Besides those which he mentions, there are the Gothic ifjjVnh 
and its compounds, the Icelandic p6, the old Frisic tach, 
thach (Wiarda), and the Francic thoh. Ihre also considers it as 
an oblique case of the demonstrative pronoun : v. Then, Thy, 
(quamvis), Ty, 

It is material to observe that Mr. Tooke^s account of Though 
will only suit it in the sense of Although, licet ; but not at all 
as veruntamen, Germ. Doch ; — in which sense also, as he admits 
in the note, p. 100, it is constantly used. This is a sense which 
it has always borne ; as for example : 

]?eali Lyjia nan ne cpse^, jppaer yecyz f u. 

Yet \tliou(jJi\ none of them saith, What seekest thou? — JoTin^ 4. 27. 

Xnb cpse^, ))lapojib, ic ga, ^ ne eobe j-pa ])eah. 

And said, I go, sir, and went not, tJtoiigh. — Matt. 21. 30. 

Jjeah hpse^ejie, na j-pa f pa ic pille. 

l%o/<-widaru, nalles thaz ih willi. — Tatian, clxxxi. 2. 

Doch, niet gelijck ick wil. — Het Niemve Test. Dordrecht, 1641. 

Though, not as I \\A\\.—Matt. 26. 39. 

Here I cannot help being led by the literal correspondence 
of the Francic with the A. -Saxon, to suspect that the con- 
junction )?eah-hp8e^epe is a remarkable substitution for ]?eah- 
pi^ep, verum e contra, or veruntamen, as it is in the Francic : 
and as it is now in the German, doch daivider, sed ex ad- 
verso. See Schilter v. Widar. A curious instance of the 
confluence of like-sounding words. Perhaps in the instance 
which Wachter gives of Weder used as quam, it has been con- 
founded with Wider. 

Ten Kate, v. ii. 618, conjectures though to be the imperative 
of ^icjean, accipere ; thus, "Seah, licet, q. d. ' Take it so.^ 
Jamieson considers it as the past part, of To think. Rich- 
ardson gives only Mr. Tooke's etymology; as if this were an 
established truth, and not merely an ingenious conjecture. 
Grimm^s account appears to be that which is founded on the 
most comprehensive survey, and an extensive knowledge of the 
shades of meaning produced by inflexion. 

With regard to (:5a}:ian, AViarda gives Thavigan and Toven, 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. XVll 

expectare, as its old Frisic representatives ; and Bruckner 
quotes Boogen and Gedoogeii as having tlie same meaning in 
Dutch. 

P. 179. 275. 

yerbs compounded with FOR. — The particle for prefixed to 
Verbs seems to have various significations^ which can only 
be studied with advantage by bringing together all the Yerbs 
and Participles in the Teutonic languages compounded with it. 
See Lamb, ten Kate's Anleiding, ii. 53 ; Jamieson^s Hermes 
Sc7/thic2is, ch. vii. and viii. -, and Grimm's Deutsche Gram- 
Tiiatik, ii. 850, where a large collection and able comparison is 
given. 

"Ver; Gothis//^/ et /r^, A. S. /ra et /or, Francis et Alam. 
far, fer, fir, fora, fori, per omnes vocales, et ssepe etiam cum 
Vau. Particula inseparabilis, vario et multiplici significatu 
pollens, in compositis, extra composita nullo.^^ — Wachter, Pro- 
leg. § v.i 

The following are some of those which occur in English 
writers : Forharred, forhear, forbid, forbrake, forbrenne^ for- 

^ Mr. Eicliardson refers to the passage which T had quoted from VYach- 
ter, but its import, " particula vario et multiplici significatu," seems to 
have been lost upon him, and his explanations of these compounds are 
made to suit the hypothesis that for means forth, and not the context 
of his examples. Thus Forhear, he says, is fortJi-hear, i. e. to bear 
forth or away from : Forbid, to bid forth or away from : Fordry, forth or 
utterly dry: Forhreak, "forbrake [abrupi] the intention of her," &c. 
CJiauc. Boet. iv. ; for, i, e. forth, utterly brake : but, if /or vf&c^ forth, fo7'- 
brake would be ' brake forth i [erupi] . Forget, to get forth or out, (sc.) 
of the mind; — whereas it is the mind that forgets; the thing that goes 
out of the mind does not forget ; otherwise, instead of " the boy forgets 
his lesson," we should have to say " the lesson forgets the boy." Forlay, 
to lay forth ; ^ " the thief forlays the traveller" — waylays him, not lays 
hiin forth. Forgo, to go forth or away from. But forth neither means 
* away from,' nor ' utterly,' and is out of the question here, having com- 
pounds of its own. Mr. Richardson is right in his orthography o\ forgo, 
to give up; but he wholly omits the other -word forego, to precede, which 
Johnson confounds with the former, yet gives for it the authority -of 
Ealeigh and Shakspeare. They are just as distinct as obire and praire. 
In subservience to this same unfounded hypothesis respecting /or^/^, we 
find Forsooth, " utterly sooth, entirely true," thus strangely made into 
an adjective. 

Robert of Gloucester has vergaf, vergoti, vergyte, verlore, &c. Also 
vorbed, vorlay, vorsoke, vorlore. 

^ " tier shall /ori5re7?;^e." F. PI. 44; — vorbarnde. Rob. Glouc. 



XVm ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

bruised [intensitive], forclose?, fonlarhed, for dew ed, fordo ^ 
fordreden, fordrive, fordronkeuj fordry, fordulled, fordwined, 
forefeehled, forfaite^ for/are, forfend, forfered, forfretetJi, 
forget, forgive, forgo, forgrowen^ forhent, forholn, forjudge,^ 
forherve, forladen [overburthened^ Goldiiig^s Ovid^ in Warton, 
iv. 237], forlaft, f orient, forlese, forlete, forlie, forlore^ for- 
jpyned, forsake, forsay, forset, forshame, forshapen [monstrous] , 
forshent, forslach, forsleuthede, forsongen, forspeak ^ [as a witch 
does], forstov^, for str aught, for swat, forswear, forswonk, for- 
think] fortorne, fortread, forwaked, forwandred, fonvasted, 

■^ ■ — " this is the night 

That either makes me, oxforedoes me quite." — Othello, act v. sc. 1. 
Mr. Tooke's account oi foredone, p. 375, "turned out of doors/' cannot 
be brought to suit this passage, or the others in which it occurs, by the 
explanation, that ''he that is forth-done, turned out of house and home, 
is, consequently, undone." 

^ Perhaps /o^/^iY does not belong to this class. — See Note, p. 179. 

^ " Twoo forgroioen fathers resemblyng Enocke and Hely." — I'a- 
lyan, 383. 

^ Cole Litt. sec. 142, foris judicatus ! — Abjudicare, fleta. " Those 
pleas are insufficient in the law to forejudge [forjudge] or exclude the 
mayor, commonalty, and citizens from being a corporation."' — Fieadings 
in the Quo Warranto. 

^ " forlorn of thee, 

Whither shall I betake me, where subsist ? " — Far. Lost, b. x. 

^ Under Fore-speak, Dutch Veur-spreken, to predict, Mr. Richardson 
erroneously places the following : 
" That my bad tongue 
Forespeaks their cattle, doth bewitch their corn." 

Ford's Witch of Edmonton. 
Notwithstanding the orthography, the word is doubtless Forspeak, to set 
a spell upon, to curse, \\\.q fraquithan, pojicpae^an, maledicere, increpare. 
Perhaps verspreken may have had that sense, Ten Kate, vol. ii. p. 408. 
Fiirsprechen, to intercede, is different from either. * 

' " sliall move your Ladyshypp forthynk your curtesye in thys 

behalfe." — Cavendysshe's Letter, in Hunter's Hallamshire, p. 81. 
" Then did his father by and by forethink [forthink] him of his oth." 
— Golding's Ovid, B. ii. " He shall aby or forthink it or I drink." — 
Falsgrave. And, under the word Repent, " I repent me, I forthynke 
me." '* I have forethought it sithe." Eob. Glouc. has ofjjougte, from 
op^encan, poenitere, and Layamon aj^inche]). 

" Neither I shall repent me, for that I haue giuen you connsaill, nor 
yet you shall forethlnke yourselfe that you have obeyed." — Wilson, Art 
of Rhetorique. This Mr. Richardson places among the compounds of 
fore, confounding it with forethink, pnumeditari, an entirely distinct 
word. The ^\i\)^ii.\\\i\\Q forethought he does not give. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. XIX 

forway^ forwearied^ forwelked, forwept, forwon, forwondred, for- 
wounded, forwrapped, foiyelde, &c. &c. 

The compounds of for ' and fore have evidently been con- 
founded, as in the cases of forego, to precede, and forgo (as it 
should be written*), to give up: so, jzopfcon, Flem. versien, to 
overlook, to despise ; jzopej'eon, Flem. veursien, to foresee : fore- 
thought , prsemeditation, and for thought, repented. When the 
particle has a privative signification, it probably represents the 
Gothic fra : also in popjijzan, Flem. vergeeven, To forgive ; ^ 
which are the collaterals of frKAr*J}^AW^« 

The explanation given by Mr. Tooke will not apply to the 
generality of cases. 

P. 220.— SUBSTANTIVE PREPOSITIONS. 

Prepositions are thus classed by Grimm, vol. iii. 251. 

I. Simple Prepositions ; (as to several of which Mr. Tooke states 

that he had not been able to satisfy himself. — p. 251.) 
With one consonant : — as In, on, out, of, at, up, hy, to. 
With more than one : — as For, from, till, nigh, with, 

II. Derivative Prepositions. — After, over, under, hinder. 

III. Compounded, of two Prepositions. — Upon, out of, within, 

behind, hefore, about, above, beneath : on mnan, on upan^ 
on uppan, be-ufan, on-bupan. v. p. 250. 

r Substantive Prepositions. — Against, among. 
\ [To this class belongs op bune, adown?^^ 
1 Adjective Prepositions. — Betwixt, between, amid, an 
^ heh, on high, below, toward. 
Among, is not E-emanj, as Somuer has it, but On jemanj, 
this being a substantive (coetus) and not the participle, which is 

jemenjeb. See p. 227. Against, which Mr. Tooke would 

refer to a supposed participle, Grimm derives from a substantive 
gagen, gegen, apparently governed by the different prefixes : — 
thus ingagen, entgegen, zugegen, begagene, onjejen, fco-jejnep, 
and, in Layamon, to-gen, to-geines. 

^ " Eepose is best tasted by \iQ)fS\t% foreweariedj" Byrd's Psalms, 1583. 
" Forewearied in affayres of great importance." Byrd's Songs, 1589, Bed. 

^ See the Errata to Lord Holland's Life of Lope de Vega, 1806. 

^ Mr. Eorby's East Anglian Vocabulary has " Borgive, To begin to 
thaw ; " " Forhinder, To prevent," as still in use : and my Norfolk nurse 
used " I \\ii\e forthongJit " simply in the sense of " I little thought." So 
pojijipan is used simply for To give. Burns uses forgather, to meet. 
Forsioear is both to abjure and to perjure. 



XK ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

P. 234. 

To LONG or BELONG. Tielanj. ALONG on : LONG 
of: ALONG with. The distinction between the two senses of 
the word Along_, (or rather of the two words^) as shown in the 
passage from Gower, 

" I tary forth the night alonge, 

For it is nought on w,e alonge 

To slepe," 
is attributed by Mr. Tooke wholly to the difference of their 
prefixes_, as being respectively the representatives of Anblanj 
and Irelanj. He refers the LANG or LONG in the latter 
as well as in the former to Len3ian_, To make long, lengthen. 
It seems to me however that in these words^ thus written alike, 
the second syllable in each is as entirely distinct in meaning 
and origin as the prefix. "To slepe is nought on me alonge. ^^ 
We shall in vain_, I think, attempt to make out any relation 
to the notion of length, here, any more than in the word BE- 
LONG, which word also, it is remarkable that Junius does 
not notice, and Skinner merely says of it, " a Teut. Belange7i, 
Anlangen.'' I conclude therefore that the root to which 
Delanj is to be referred is not Lenjian, To lengthen, but 
Langen, pertinere, for which see Wachter. From this we 
have also, in Kilian, '^ Belangh, Verlangh, necessitas, res neces- 
saria, res momentosa, — Een saecke van groot verlangh ; " 
and " BelangJien, pertinere : ^^ — in Schilter, " Gilengido, affi- 
nitates ; Gilanger, propinquus ; " and, in Ten Kate, vol. ii. 
p. 84 and 261, ^' Belang, Gelang, quod alicui quid refert : — 
Belangen, spectare ad aliquid ; " to which he refers the termi- 
nation LING ; the idea conveyed in all of which is that of 
close and intimate connection, and not at all of longitudinal 
dimension. Of the termination LING Somner says, " adjuncti 
cui additur notat subjectura,^' as in Foundling, Hireling, Duck- 
ling, Nestling, Firstling, Groundling, Fatling, Sapling, World- 
ling, indicating that the quality or circumstance closely 
belongs to the subject.^ That Cling and Clench may be con- 

^ "LING oritur a langen, spectare, pertinere, et hinc, substantivis 
annexum, ex substantivo suppositum facit personale, et quodvis sub- 
jectum denominationis, quatenus subjectum, illud ad substantivum sub 
aliqua ratione pertinere creditur." And, " Ex adjectivo facit substnntivuin, 
ea qualitate pra^ditum cui annectitur." Jf'achter, Brolegom. Sect. vi. 
e. g. Youngling, Dnrling. See also Grimm, ii. 352, and 356 for adverbs 
in /iVvy.s ;— Scotch, l^lindlins, Scantlins ; and Diukling, Milton. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. XXI 

nected witli this root as intensitives, I would only submit as a 
hasty conjecture ^ and Ming and Sling in a contrary sense. 
Our early writers frequently use Long as a verb_, without the 
prefix Be^ in the sense oi pertain. So Chaucer : 

"That appertaineth and longeth all onely to the judges." 

Tale of Melibeus. 

Along, in the sense of length_, was formerly written Alongst, 
And it is to be remarked that Along, when the representative 
of Delanj, is always followed by on, upon, at, of, or the 
Noun in the genitive case, as in " on ppeoj'te jelanj : ^^ 
— " ^t, )?e If upe lip jelanj." Our life is along at Thee. 
— "hit ip sec Dobep home jelanj.^^ — "Which was upon the 
kynge alongeP — Goiver. " \q bpmca hif jelanj.^-' — Oros. 
5. 8. Along with should seem also to be from La^igen, perti- 
nere, as well as Along of, and to have no relation to Length. 
Latimer and Ridley were sentenced along with Cranmer. " And 
he to England shall along with joVi.^'— Hamlet, iii. 3. John- 
son, explaining the expression in Pope '^ Come along," by 
onward, absurdly derives it from the French Allons. Richard- 
son gives Along and Belong as verbs, in the sense of To 
lengthen ; but with no instances of either in that sense : none, 
I should think, exist. He also gives the following senses of 
Belong : To reach. To attain. To appertain : the last being the 
only real one — the others imagined, merely to make out a sup- 
posed etymology. The other senses of Lang en mentioned by 
Wachter, are trahere, expetere, prolongare, porrigere, tangere, 
and, metaphorically as he supposes, pervenire, from which he 
would derive the sense, pertinere : but the connection seems 
very remote and doubtful, and a confusion of the agent with the 
object. 

P. 243. 

ABOUT. — Mr. Tooke seems to have gone astray in his 
account of this word ; and very strangely, as its history seems 
tolerably clear. He appears to have been put on a wrong scent 
by Spelman, who derives it from the French Bout and Alouter ; 
and overlooking Skinner's derivation of it, which he quotes, and 
Junius' s, which he omits, he says, in p. 243, " Spelman, Junius, 
Skinner, and Menage all resort to Franco- Gall, for their ety- 
mology.'' This is certainly not true with regard to Junius and 
Skinner, however some of the passages as quoted by him from 



XXll ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

them may have this appearance. What is given from Junius 
relates to a different word^ ' But_, Scopus/ and has no reference 
to About ; his account of which, being omitted by Mr. Tooke, I 
here insert : 

"About, circum, circa. A.-Saxones abucan vel abuton 
dicebant; quae videri possunt facta ex illo embe ucan quod 
occurrit Marc. 14. 47 ; 'Ku. oy ^Sam )?e })ap embe utan jrobon, 
Unus ex circumstantibus. Vide tamen Spelmanni Glossarium 
in Abuttare.'^ 

Skinner, as will be seen in the first quotation from him, 
(p. 242.) which is the whole of what he says upon the word 
About, derives it unhesitatingly from A.-S. abucan, ymbucan. 
The other passages which Mr. Tooke quotes from Skinner treat 
of Abutt and But, which he derives from the Franco- Gall. 
Bout, and have no reference whatever to About. 

Skinner errs in compounding Abutan of the Latin prepo- 
sition Ah and the Saxon utan ; for analogy obviously leads us to 
consider the A as a contraction of the Saxon On (as AgaiUj 
onjean ; Atoay, on pej ; Aback, on bsec, &c.) and it is sometimes 
written with On, which requires bucan, and not utan. 

The word is found in the following forms : onbutan, on- 
buton, abutan, abuton; embe utan, embutan, ymbeutan, 
ymbutan, ymbuton; all orthographical variations of two, 
onbutan and ymbutan; and these, though really distinct 
words, as being compounds of butan and utan with the distinct 
prepositions On and Ym or Ymbe, yet seem to have coalesced ^ 
in the course of time, not greatly differing in sense or sound, 
to form our present word About, which is the representative 
of both. Of this I think no one will doubt who attends 
to the idiomatic features in which it exactly resembles its 
progenitors, as the following phrases of King Alfred and the 

^ The tendency of similar words to coalesce in the course of time, 
and from being confounded in popular use, is one of the plisenomena of 
language to be noticed : For example viystenj (iJivo-Trjpiov), and mistere, 
ministerium, maisterie, mestiero, metier, an art or craft : — the French 
Isle, Ital. Isola, Lat. Insula, confounded with Island, (properly Hand) 
A.-S. Galoub, Gitlanb. So Unter and Liter, Beorn and Beam. Thus 
has Weremuth been transformed into Wormwood, ^racjils dypia into 
Stavesacre; Febrifugmm into Featherfew; Frithhorg into Triborg, out 
of which mistake grew the word Frankpledge; Knave converted into 
Nativns, &c. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. XXlll 



Saxon Chronicle will show : peopjian ymbucon, far about ; 
)?8eji ymbucanj thereabouts ; nojiS ymbutan, north about : 
j'u^ ymbucan, south about. 

With regard to Onboba^ I cannot imagine where Mr. Tooke 
got it, or how it could be connected with About. [Having 
thus called in question the reality of this word in the edition 
of 1829, I had supposed that it would not again be cited with- 
out some proof that it had an existence ; but Mr. Richardson, 
in his lately published Dictionary, under the words About and 
Abut, still refers us to '^ Abuta, Onbutd, Onboda ; Boda, the 
first outward extremity or boundary of anything ; " all of which 
are, so far as I can find, mere creatures of the imagination, or 
of some mistake. Mr. M'Culloch, also, in his Grammar, 1835, 
refers to this fictitious Saxon " Abut a, the verge or extremity 
of a thing.^-' It is to be regretted that those who claim credit 
for founding new grammars and dictionaries on the principles 
of Mr. Tooke, should make them the means of difiusing and 
perpetuating all his errors in detail.] 

I find that the subject is sometimes interposed between the 
two prepositions, as in King Alfred^s OrosiuSj b. 1. ch. 1. p. 22. 
^' Of J?8em lanbe )?e ymb hy utan psepan." Of the lands 
that round them about were, ymb li^an ucan, circumnavi- 
gare. And so the Icelandic description of the annular eclipse of 
August 5, 1263, in Haco's Eccpedition, ed. Johnstone, p. 44 : 
" Sva at litill hringr var biartur um solina utan.'' So that a little 
ring was bright about the sun : or, round the sun about. — 
" Ymb ]?a p annan utan.^'' Bed. 645, 22. — Ucan-ymb some- 
times occurs for ymb-ucan. — I confess I do not understand the 
ground of Mr. Grimm^s question [Grammat. iii. 265,) as to 
the import of the a in about, considering the analogy of similar 
words compounded with on. 

P. 247. 

DOWN, ADOWN.— Mr. Tooke shows clearly that his pre- 
decessors had entirely failed in their endeavours to investigate 
the origin of this Preposition ; and gives a new and ingenious 
conjecture, in the absence of any thing satisfactory. 

I have given in the Note to p. 247 what occurred to me, 
whilst employed upon that part of the work, as the true expla- 
nation of this preposition which has so much puzzled our ety_ 
mologists. The most perplexing questions sometimes admit 



XXIV ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

of a very simple solution. We must return for its origin to our 
substantive Down_, A.-S. Dune, a hill. Those indeed who 
looked to this source had been so much at a loss how to con- 
nect a preposition signifying depression with a substantive which 
denoted elevation, that the question must have seemed to Mr, 
Tooke quite open for fresh conjecture.^ When_, however, I met 
with Oj: bune in Anglo-Saxon, no doubt remained that the 
mystery was solved, and that all the obscurity had been occa- 
sioned by the disappearance of the particle prefixed. There 
is no need therefore any longer to torture Dune or Down, and 
to make it appear to signify the reverse of that which it really 
means, a hill ; for as Oj: bune means Off or From Hill^ it 
must imply Descent; and Down is only put for Adown or O}:- 
bune by an elision of the prefix. As abuna, 'abune, with 
their compounds, are also found, we can have no doubt that 
the A in this case has arisen from the Oj: rapidlj? pronounced ; ^ 
and instead of Adown being from a and the preposition down, 
as Dr. Johnson tells us, the fact is just the reverse, — Down is 
contracted from Adown or ^bune, and ?Cbune is from Oj: 
bune.** 

As the instances which I have as yet found of the use of Of 
bune are but six, of which Lye gives references only to five, 
and those dispersed under different heads, and, unlike his gene- 
ral practice, without the context, I have thought it might be 
satisfactory if I furnished the reader with the following : 

Under Ojibune, Deorsum, Lye only refers us to Op and Dun. 

"Oj:. 0/ De."— "Opjjammun-ce." " Op heopoimm. De coelo." "Op 
bune. Deorsum; Oro8. 3. 5. Bott. 25." 

^ '" Conjecture cannot supersede historical fact ; and it ought never 
to be adopted in etymology, unless to explain tliose words of which the 
existence precedes record. Mr. Tooke, who had more intellect than 
northern lore, frequently advances a rasli though always an ingenious 
conjecture : but Mr. Richardson pursues the same untracked course with 
still less caution, and often connects (like Mr. Whiter in his Etymolo- 
gicon) words as obviously distinct in pedigree as a negro and a white." 
— Monthhj Review, for Jan. 1817, N. S. vol. Ixxxii. p. 86. 

^ So in the case of "De chez,'' p. 162, where chez is the substantive 

CASA. 

^ Thus Ashamed from opj^ceam.oh ; Athirst from op^yjifce ; afinchej? 
from op]}inche]), Layam. 

* So Bedims, from de and clivv^. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. XXT 

"Dun. bune. A down. Mons; Mf. Gl. 18. ^r. 5. Matt. 24. 3. Pi. 67. 

16. — op bune. Downward, down. Deorsum; Oros. 3. 5. R. Luc. 

4. 9. Boet. c. 33. §. 4. 1. 86. ' 
"5Cbun. abuna. abune. Deorsum; Bed. 1. 12. C. Luc. 4., 9." 
" ^ffbunaj-e'c'c. Depositus; Bed. 4. 6." 
" Trbuneafcigan. abunej-ti5an. Descendere; C. Luc. 19. 5. P*. 71. 6. 

87. 4." 
" 2Cbunpeajib. Deorsum; C. Sax. 1083." 

To which I subjoin so much of the context of the passages 
referred to as will be sufficient for the satisfaction of the reader. 

King Alfred's Orosius, 3. 5. p. 94. — 'Knh hi let;on heofia hnsegl op 
bune ro pot;um. And they let their garments down to their feet. 

King Alfred's Boethius, 25. — Spa bi^ eac ])am "cfieopum ^e him je- 
cynbe hi]) up heah ro pranbanne. jjeah ^u reo hpelcne boh op bune ro 
jjaejie eojifan, ppelce ])u began maege. ppa ]>u. hme alasrpr. ppa ppjimcj? 
he up. *3 pjiiga^ pij? hip gecynbep.^ So it is also with the trees, to 
which it is natural to stand erect. Though thou tug each bough down 
to the earth with all thy might ; when thou lettest it go, then springeth 
it up, and streteheth according to its nature. 

TTnb nip hijie ^onne ejjjie ro peallanne op-bune ^onneup. — 33. §. 4. 
1. 86. And it is not to them easier to fall downwards than upwards.^ 

To these should be added another, given under the word 
J^ealb, which Lye thus explains; '^Propensus, proclivis_, de- 
vexuS;, incurvatus. 'Sibep healb. Istuc proclivis^ (thereto in- 

^ " Yalidis quondam viribus acta, 
Pronum flectit virga cacumeu ; 
Hanc si curvans dextra remisit, 
Eecto spectat vertice coelum." — Be Consol. lib. 3. metr. 2. 

" The yerde of a tre that is haled adowne by mightie strength boweth 
redily the croppe adown : but if that the hande that is bente let it gone 
againe, anon the croppe lokethe vpright to the heuen." — Chaucer's transl. 

* " Aut mersas deducant pondera terras." — Be Consol. lib. 3. metr. 9. 

" ne flye nat ouer hie, ne that the heuinesse ne draw nat adoune 

ouerlowe the yerthes that be plonged in the waters." — Chaucer's transl. 
where observe that he uses Adoun. 
In the King of Tars we have, 

"His robe he rente adoun." — Warton, ii. 25. 8vo. 

" The table adoun riht he smot." — Ibid. 

"Al that he hitte he smot doun riht." — Ibid. 

"He hem a-dun leide." — Layamon, 1. 551. 

" And descended a doun to the derk helle." — P. Plouhmans Crede. 

" That hongen adoun to theo grounde." 

Bavie's Alisaundre, TFarton, ii. 54. 

"Theo duyk feol doun to the grounde." — Ibid. 59. 

e 



XXVI ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

clined) ; Boet. 24. 4. oj; bune healbe. De monte devexus; 
41. 6.^^ It will be seen that lie has here fallen into a singular 
mistake in rendering the phrase literally ^Me monte/^ which 
he never could have done if the context had not escaped his 
attention : 

Alfred's BoetJdus, 41. 6.^ — TCnb j'ume bi]j 'cpiope'ce, j^ume popeja- 
pere ; pime pleogenbe. ^ ealle Jteah bioj? oj: bune healbe pi]) ]?3ejie 
eojijjan. And some be two-footed, some four-footed ; some flying : and 
yet all be downwards inclined towards the earth.^ 

Matt. 24. 3. — pa he y?ex. uppan Oliue'cy-jf bune. As he sate uppon a 
mount of Olives. — Fox's Gospels. 

Fsal. 67. 15-17. Spelman. — Dune Gobejr, munr paer. Mun-c je- 
jiunnon, bune paer. to hpy pene ge muntap jejiunnene. Dune on J3am 
gelicob \y God punian on hine. 

Mons Dei, mons pinguis. Mons coagulatus, mons ' pinguis, ut quid 
suspicaraini montes coagulatos? Mons in quo beneplacitum est Deo 
habitare in eo. 

R. Luc. 4. 9. op bune. C. Luc. 4. 9. abune. In these two versions 
of Luke 4. 9. (If thou be the son of God, cast thyself down from hence) 
we see abune in the Cambridge MS. (Wanley's Cat. p. 152, I^ye's C.) 
supplying the place of op bune in his E., which is the Eushworth MS. in 
the Bodleian Library, Wanl. p! 82. In Mareschal's edition the passage 
is thus rendered, Ijyp ]}u py Irobep punu, apenb J)e heonun nyjjeji.* 

Gothic, vAiKni ci^fiK tI>A4>KX aAAA4^.^ 

^ " Sunt quibus alarum levitas vaga, verberetque ventos, 
Et liquid© longi spatia setheris enatet volatu. 
Hsec pressisse solo vestigia gressibusque gaudent, 
Yel virideis campos transmittere vel subire sylvas. 
Quae variis videas licet omnia discrepare formis ; 
Prona tamen facies hebetes valet ingravare sensus. 
Unica gens hominum celsum levat altius cacumen," &c. 

De Consol. lib. 5. met. 5. 
^ The following is the passage answering to this in Alfred's metrical 
paraphrase, p. 197 : 

Sume potum tpam Some with two feet 

polban pe^^aj?. tread the ground : 

pume piefipete. some fourfooted. 

Sume pleogenbe Some flying 

pmbe]) unbeji polcnum. wind under the welkin. 

Bi]) jjeah puhta jehpilc Yet is each creature 

onhnijen to hjiupan. inclined to the ground, 

hnipa]} op bune. boweth adown, 

on peojiulb plirejj. on the world looketh, 

pilnaj? ro eoji])an. tendeth to the earth. 

' The representatives of which still remain in the Dutch neder, down, 
daalen, to descend; Germ, thalwdrts, downhill. Mr. Gwilt, in his Sa.von 
Rudiments, cannot be right in giving to ni^ep and abune the significa- 
tion of backwards. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. XXVll 

Bede 1. 12. — Tujan hi eajimlice abun op ^am pealle. Miserrime de 
muris tracti, solo allidebantiir. 

Bede 4. 6. — Dast; abune ajre'c'con op ^am bipcop jiice pinpjii]}^. 
Ut deposito Winfrido, &c. 

C. Luc. 19. 5. — Xbuneaptigan (Cambridg-e MS.) And in the Durham 
'Book.Cot. Nero, I find — TTnb cuoe^ "co him Zache oepepta (j; oepep'clice) 
abune p'cig. poji^on "co bsege in hup ^m gebsepneb ip me *co punian. "^ 
oepiptube opptiaj abune. Et dixit ad eum, Zacchee, festinans descencle, 
quia hodie in domo tua oportet me manere. Et festinans descendit. 

Psalm 71. 6. — ]?e abuneaptah ppa ppa jien on plyp. Descendet 
sicut pluvia in vellus. 

Bsalm 87. 4. — Gepeneb ic com mib abuneptigenbum on pea]?e. — 
iEstimatus sum cum descendentibus in lacum. 

Psalm 73. 3. — Mount Sion is called J^sejie bune. 

Matth. 4. 8. — Junius says that the Eushworth MS. has ^une instead 
of bune — On ^une heh pui^e : where Mareschal has On ppi^e heahne 
mun"c. 

Citron. Sax. an. 1083. — Xnb pcotebun abunpeajib mib ajiepan. 
And shot downwards with arrows. — ^S'nb ]?a o^;ie ^a bujia bjasecon fseji 
abune. And the others broke down the doors. 

I believe it will be found that the adverb and preposition 
Down exists in none of the other Teutonic dialects^ but solely 
in the English language. With regard to the substantive, 
Wachter derives it from Bunen, turgere. 

[Since the publication of the Edition of 1829, I have met 
with one more instance, in the poem of Judith : 
)pi ^a hjieopij-moba 
pujapon hyjia paepen op bune. — TJiwaites, Hept. p. 25. 

Also, in the third volume of Grimm's Grammatik, 1831, I find 
op bune classed in his division of Prepositional Adverbs formed 
of Substantives, p. 151. seq. with others exactly analogous : e. g. 
aha herge, aha himile, deorsum ; and the converse, formed in the 
same manner, ze tale, deorsum, ze herge, sursum ; Old French 
and Italian, amont, aval, a monte, a valle, up, down ; — and Ger. 
hergauf Mndi hergah gehen. To walk up and down hill. 

The matter seems now so perfectly plain, that I wonder Mr. 
D. Booth, in the Introduction to his Analytical Dictionary, 
1830, p. cxxviii. should have kept in the path of difficulty ] 

P. 265. 

GENITIVAL ADVERBS. The adverbs formed from the 

oblique cases of substantives and adjectives are collected by 

Grimm in great number from the Teutonic languages in all the 

periods of their history, and classed according to their origin 

c 2 



XXVm ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

ffom t&e gemiive^ dative, or accusative ca.se.—'&rdmTriatikf vol. iii. 
p. 88 et seq. Such as the following are evidently to be referred 
to the genitive : " anef bsejej^ j'e abbobe eobe." One day the 
abbot went. — Sax. Chron. an. 1083. Therwith the nightspel 
said he anon rilites. — Chauc. Ililler's Tale, 3J^80. Bt/ rigJds. 
Unawares, Athio art-ships. Amid-sJiips. His thankes. Now adayes, 
[P. PL 186. Wkit.) Now on daps, (G. Dougl. b. 5. 140.) Besides. 
Betimes. Straiglitways. (This Richardson omits ; and Webster, 
I know not why, says it is obsolete.) Ways occurs as the geni- 
tive singular, '^ any ways afflicted/^ Com. Prayer. {Always, how- 
ever, Grimm says is from the plural. Else, he considers as the 
genitive ellef, p. 61. 89.) Go thy ways. "Irepsenbe fsef psejej' 
Jje he sep com.^^ He turned the way that he before came. — 
ApoUonius, ed. Thorpe, p. 13. Of late ; of old ? "Nipep o]7))e 
ealbej'.'^ — Cony bear e, p. 246. 

Among those which are to be referred to the Dative plural, 
Grimm, iii. p. 136, mentions J^pilum, aliquando. So that our 
WHILOM has come down to us with its datival inflexion entire, 
like some fossil among the debris and alluvium of our language, 
with all its original characters unobliterated : — and the sub- 
stantive While supplies us with two adverbs — 

Whiles y from the genitive singular, and 

Whilom, from the dative plural. 
Yet Lennie, among the conceited absurdities of his grammar, 
twentieth edition, Edinb., 1839, gravely tells us that ^^ while 
should not be used as a noun ! ^\ Alas for the poor children 
who are doomed to be tormented out of their mother tongue by 
these Grammar-makers ! 

P. 266. 678. 680. 
FUTURE INFINITIVE. Such expressions as the follow- 
ing evidently have their origin from the ancient Derivative or 
Future Infinitive. The house is to build. There are many 
things to do, trees to plant, fences to make, &c. Hard to bear. 
Fair to look on. Easy to learn. Good to eat. Hifficult to 
handle. Sad to tell. So, " J^it ly j^ceame to tellanne, ac 
hit ce Jjiihte hun nan j^ceame to bonne." — Chr. Sax. an. 
1085. ** rpij'e jebpolf um to psebenne." — Thwaites, Hept. 4. 
*' bejan to bobienne ; psejen on to locianne." — Oros. II. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. XX^ 

iv. 68. A house to let; (for which some folks, thinking to show 
their grammar, write A house to be let^ Ages to come. He is to 
hlame. What is to be, " )?e dede )?at is to drede.^' — Langtoft, 
399. " >e day is for to wUen/'—Ib. 2. 341. 

" That is the robe I mean, ivvis,^ 
Through which the ground to praisen is.'' — Rom. of the Base, 1. 69. 

" That is a frute full wel to like."— lb. 1. 1357. 

** Nought wist he what this Latin was to my'' — Prioresses T. 134. 53. 

** Thynges that been to flien, and thynges that been to desirenr — 
Boet. 5. 2. "And is hereafter to commen." — P. Ploughn. Creed. *' Where- 
fore it is to presuppose that it was for a more grevous cause." — Fabyan, 
389, A.D. 1285. "And this is not to seek, it is absolutely ready." 

" I do not think ray sister so to seek." — Comus. 

It seems to have been first altered by accenting the vowel, in- 
stead of using the nne, as Co punian, and then to have been 
written like the simple infinitive, but with to prefixed : " j'uojien 
]?e paif CO halben.^^ — Chron. Sax. an. 1140. Originally the 
simple infinitive was not preceded by to : thus we still say, / 
bade him rise. I saw him fall. You may let him go. They heard 
him sifig. See Grimm^ iv. 91 and 104; Pure Infinitive and Pre- 
positional Infinitive. 

With regard to Lye^s statement (referred to in the note, 
p. 192.) that Co was sometimes prefixed, though redundantly, 
to the simple infinitive, it will be found that he is not borne 
out by the passages to which he refers, and which, as he has 
not given them, I insert. ^' TCnb j-secce )?3eji munecaj' trobe 
CO jjepian." — Chron. Sax. 118. 1-0; — ad inserviendum Deo;- — 
evidently not the simple but the future infinitive. " ]?a pe- 
onbe he ^ man fceolbe ]?a fcipu Co heapan." — Ibid. 134. 10. 
— ut naves confringerent. Here the co is not the prefix to 
the infinitive ; which is clearly governed by j'ceolbe ; but the 
verb is a compound, coheapan. " Gobon heom Co heopa 
jappan peojime,'^ egressi sunt ad quserendum sibi victum : the 

^ Iwis, ywis, jepij", certainly, indeed ; (not as Somner supposes, I wis, 
scio). The verb pi^can, therefore, gives us these two adverbs : 

From the past participle, gepij-, Fr. Th. kewisso, — iwis ; 

From the future infinitive, ro piranne, — to wit : 
The near relation of piran to videre, viserefdiboi^ tuip^ait has been pointed 
out by Junius, Wachter, and others.^: ^^^^^ ^^^,,^^^^^^/,,.. 



XXX ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

sense is here mistaken ; it should be " they went to their ready- 
retreat ; " and the passage is not to the purpose. " T>e onbpeb 
}?ybe]i CO papanne/^ — Matt. 2. 22. (" Co papenbe/^ — Fox.) and 
"To papenne "^ bebypijean mmne psebep/^ — Ih. 8. 22. are ob- 
viously future. Thus, in German, Z2i is prefixt to a verb 
governed by another verb that precedes it, except in the case of 
auxiliaries and some others. 

Some writers of the present day have a disagreeable affecta- 
tion of putting an adverb between to and the infinitive. 

Grimm considers the Infinitive as declinable, and makes the 
Future Infinitive a Dative Case, vol. ii. p. 1022. iv. 61. 105. 

The form which occurs in Wiclif, " Thou that art to comynge^^ 
— Matt, 11. 3., would seem to be a corruption of the future 
infinitive, as it answers to pu };e Co cumenne eapc, &c. Yet 
we find CO makienbe in Hickes, ii. 171. xxiii. ; and, in the Saxon 
Chronicle, an. 654, instead of " BoCulp onjon )?8ec mynpcep 
Cimbpian," MS., Cot, reads, " ajan to macienbe ^ mynj-cep:^^ 
a form which often occurs in old Platdeutsche : Wultu uns 
uthdryven, so vorlove uns inn de herde swyne tho vare^ide," — 
Matt. 8. "^ Crist Ihesu that is to demynge the quyke and deed.-'' 
— 2 Tim. 4. 1. " Ihesu Christo, de dar thoJcamende ys, tho rich- 
tende de levendigen und de doden.^' — Tlatdeutsche Billet Mag- 
dehurg, 1545. "Do began he to hevende'^ — Bruns Gedichte, 
360 : From which it would seem to have been confounded with 
the present participle ; unless there should have been a form in 
which the particle to was used with the Present Participle, in 
the same manner as with the Past and with the Future Infini- 
tive : — as to-bpecenb, to-bpocen, to-bpecanne. See Grimm, 
iv. 113. 

P. 292. 559. 609. 
ENGLISH IMPERSONALS. METHINKS. 

Mr. Richardson in his Dictionary thus explains Methinks: 
" It causes me to think,'' which is as little to the purpose as to 
explain Me seemeth. It causes me to seem, instead of It seems 
to me.^ 



^ Other instances may be noted wliere the pronoun follows the verb in 
the Objective case ; as " Woe is me.'"' — 
*' Oh, wel is him that hath his quiver 
Furnisht with such artillery." — Stei'nliold and IlopHns, Psalm 127. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. XXXI 

Thus Shakspeare : 

" Prir .. Where shall we sojourne till our coronation? 
Glo. Where it tJiinks best unto your royal selfe." 

Richard the Third, act 3. sc. 1. 
as it stands in the first copies, though since altered to seems. 
Thinks, in this case, is the representative of Dunken, To appear, 
and not of Denken, To think. We have therefore in German 
mich dunktj as in English methinks, i. e. It appears to tne. 
Several Impersonals of a similar kind may be enumerated. 

" Me seemeth good that with some little traine 
Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fetcht." 

Richard the Third, act 2. sc. 2. 

" Let him do what seemeth him good." — 1 Sam. iii. 18. 

" Her thoiight it all a vilanie." — Chauc. R. Rose, 1. 1231. 

" Him oughtiyi now to have the lese paine." — Leg. Good Worn. 429. 

" Him ought not be a tiraunt." — Ih. 1. 377. 

" The gardin that so likid me.''' — Chauc. R. Rose, 1. 1312. 

" So it liked ^ the emperor to know which of his daughters loved him 
best."^ — Gesta Rom. ed. Swan, i. Ixxii. ch. 20. 

" He should ask of the emperor what him list.''' — Ih. Ixxxv. ch. 41. 

''Me mette'' — (I dreamt;) Chaucer, Miller's T. 3684; Nonne's Pr. 
1. 14904 ; Tiers Plowm. p. 1. &c. If this be from Meran, To paint, To 
image, it would seem from its impersonal form to be q. d. "It imaged 
to me." In some instances, however, " mette " occurs governed by the 
pronoun in the nominative case. 

" Well me quemeth,'' (pleaseth) Chauc. Conf. Am. 68. Also our 
common expression " If you please ; " where you is evidently not the 
nominative to the verb, but is governed by it, q. d. " If you it please : " 
yet, by a singular perversion of the phrase, we say " I do not please,'* 
*' If she should please," for " It does not please me," " If it should 
please her." 

" Stanley. Please it your majestic to give me leave. 

He muster up my friends and meete your gi'ace, 
Where and what time your majestic shall please.''* 

Richard the Third, act 4. sc. 4. 

" Me op^mcp," poenitet me. — Somner. " TCnb hic ]?uht:e 
him peapa baja." — Gen. 29. 20. And it seemed unto him 
but a few days. "Da Fmnap, him jjuhte, ^ })a Beopmap 
pppsecon neah an je^eobe.^^ — Oros. p. 22. It seemed to 
him that the Finnas and the Beormas spoke nearly one lan- 
guage, punbeplic );incan. Boet. 16. 2. To seem wonderful. 

^ " In thir gilicheta mir." — ScUlter. Goth. '* Thatei leikaith imma." 
—John^. 29. 



XXXU ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

OA YZVIS if^nrKGl^. Quia vobis yidetur?— Mark 
14. 64. J^psec Jjinc^ eop be Cjiipce ? Tt vfilv Bokcl irepl 
Tov Xpio-Tov ; Matth. 22. 42. ; where the pronoun is eop, 
vfjbiVj in the dative ; not je, v^eh, — JjincS exactly correspond- 
ing to hoKel, to which word, indeed, Wachter supposes Dunken, 
videri, to be related ; whilst Denken, cogitare, he derives from 
ding, sermo, " sensu a sermone externo ad internum translato. 
Quid enim est cogitare, nisi intus et in mente sermocinari ? ^^ * 
See Ihre, v. Ting, Tinga, colloquium. It is clear, notwithstand- 
ing the occasional writing of })incan for ]?encan, that, from the 
earliest existing records of all the Teutonic dialects, these have 
come down to us as two entirely distinct words ; — they are al- 
ways kept distinct in the prseterite ; — and no mere conjecture 
of a common origin can warrant us in confounding them.^ 



Goth. 4>ArKQAN, To think. 

pr^et. cJ^AhTA- Luc. i. 29. 

A.-S. jjencean, fencan, J>mc- 

an, prset. f ohce. 

Franc. Thenken, prset. thahta. 
Germ. Denken, prset. dachte. 
Icel. at J?eckia, praet. feckti. 
Suio-G. Tsenka, 



<J>nrrKQAN, To seem. 

prset. ipnhTA. Luc. 19. 11. 
)jmcan, 

prset. ))uhce. 
Thunken. 

Dunken, prset. diinkt. 

at Jjykia, prset. Jjotti. 

Tycka. 

All these when impersonal govern 
the person in the dat. or ace. 



^ The quotation which he adds, may be interesting, in reference to the 
observations on Mr. Locke's Essay in Chap. II. p. 19, 20, &c. 

*' Eleganter Tertullianus, cap. v. co7i. Prax. — Vide quum tacitus ipse 
tecum congrederis, ratione hoc ipsum agi intra te, occurrente ea tibi 
cum sermone ad omnem cogitatus tui motum, et ad omnem sensus tui 
pulsum. Quodcunque cogitaveris sermo est, quodcunque senseris ratio 
est. Loquaris illud in animo necesse est : Et dura loqueris, conlocu- 
torem pateris sermonem, in quo inest hsec ipsa ratio, qua cum ea cogi-. 
tans loquaris, per quam loquens cogitas. Ita secundus quodammodo 
in te est sermo, per quem loqueris cogitando, et per quem cogitas lo- 
quendo." 

^ Junius (Gloss, to Goth. Gospels) and Lye confound them. But 
they are clearly distinguished by Wachter ; and by Ihre, v. T^enka, and 
Tycka, as to which he says, " eo cum discrimine, quod hoc mentis sit 
cognitio, illud sententia :^^ the one signifying perception., the other de- 
liberation and all the operations of the mind, as relating to the past and 
future as well as the present. Mig tyckes, impers. mihi videtur." Mer 
thickir, Gloss, to Edda, part ii. 1818, v. )?ickia, )j6tti, ])okti : and v. 
J?atti pro jjeckti, and Jjeckia. Also Bioryi Ilaldorsen, v. Jjyki and |)enki. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. XXXIU 

P. 338. 346. 431. 

WHINID. — '^^Tis a common expression in the western 
counties to call an ill-natured^ sour person, vinnid. For vinewed, 
vinowed, vin7i7/, or vmew (the word is variously written) signifies 
mouldy. In Troilus and Cressida, act 2d, Ajax speaks to 
Thersites, ' Thou vinned^st leaven/ i. e. thou most mouldy sour 
dough. Let this phrase be transplanted from the west into Kent, 
and they will pronounce it whined^ st leaven.^^ — " Mr. Theobald 
reads, you unwinnovr' d'' st leaven; others, you unsalted leaven. 
But vinned'st is the true reading, ab Anglo- Sax. fynig, mucidus. 
Wachterus, ^ finnen, sordes, finnig, mucidus, putridus, fijimger 
speck, lardum foetidum. Idem Anglo- Saxonibus fynig apud 
Somner et Benson, et inde fynigean, mucescere.^ This, word 
I met with in Horman^s Vulgaria, printed in 1519, folio 
162. 'This bredde is olde and venyed: hie panis cariosa est 
vetustate attactus,^ which not a little confirms my correction 
and explication.^^ — Ujoto^i's Critical Observations on ShaJcespear, 
p. 213. 

P. 389. 437. 

BOND, BOUND.— That the difierent senses of Bond, Bound, 
&c., are to be traced to distinct roots, and are not all of them 
connected with the word To hind, will appear, for instance, from 
Bond, which now forms a part of the word R^island, Huslond, 
but which was formerly used instead of it. 

In Somner we have '^Bonba, Paterfamilias, Maritus. The 
good man of the house : a husband. Vox (forte) origine 
Danica, hoc enim sensu occurrit apud Olaiim Worminm, Monum. 
Danic. 1. 3. p. 233.^' Somner cites no authority; but we find 
the following in the Laws of Canute, Wilkins, 144 (on Intes- 
tates, Heriots, &c.). 

70. Conjux incnlat eandem sedem quam Maritus. 

Anb Jjseja j^e Bonba j'set; uncpyb ^ imbecjiapcb, yizre ■f pip *] ^a 
cilb on ^am ylcan unbej'acen. And gip ye Bonba sej\ he beab paijie, 
&c. And where the Husband resided undisputed and unquestioned, let 
the wife remain, and the child in the same spot, without dispute. And if 
the Husband' ere he were dead, &c. (So in Laws, Hen. I. c. 14. p. 245. 
*' Et ubi Bunda manserit sine calumpnia, sint uxor et pueri in eodem sine 
querela.") Also, p. 74. Corijux qum furata recepit furti non tenetur. 
Ne rasej nan pijze hijae Bonban pojibeoban ^ he ne mote into hij* cotan 
gela^ian ji «ji he pille. Nor may no wife her husband, forbid that he 
might not into his cot bring what he will. 



XXXIV ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

Spelman and Skinner have recourse in their etymology to the 
verb Emban, to bind; considering Husband as domus vinculum: 
and Mr. Bosworth, as "one bound by rules." Skinner, how- 
ever, also gives huj- and bonba. Paterfamilias, after Somner. 
But Junius,^ who has been followed by Jamieson, Webster, and 
Richardson, rightly refers it to the Saxon and Danish Buenb 
or Bonde, an inhabitant or occupier ; being the present ^ parti- 
ciple of Bya, Byan or Bujian, habitare, incolere; and rendered 
by manens, as Sir Francis Palgrave informs us, in the Latin 
charters. So Wilkins, p. 134, 

Spa ^am Bunban j-y j-eloj-c. As may be best for the inhabitants. 

The similarity of the Pres. Participle of this Verb to the Past 
Part, of To Bind, to which it can have no relation, may have 
occasioned ambiguity and perhaps led to mistakes as to another 
use of the word Bond. In Bucange, 8vo edit., we have 

"Bondus, servus obnoxise conditionis, qui alias nativus, ex Saxon. 
bonb, ligatus, obhgatus." He cites among others Walsingham : " Kus- 
tici namque quos Nativos vel Bondos vocaraus." " Servitia bondorum." 
Monast. Ancjl. " Bondi regis " in Legibus Forestarum Scoticarum. 
Bundones in Danish and Swedish historians. In the same work we 
have also " Bondagium, conditio servilis, vel colonica::" for which also 
Walsingham is quoted : " manumisimus universos ligeos, &c., comitatus 
Herefordiae, et ab omni hondagio exuimus, et quietos facimus." " Ru%- 
tici fuistis et estis, et in hondagio permanebitis." — So also Spelman, v. 
Nativus. " Servos enim, alios bondos dicimus, alios nativos, alios villanos. 
— Bondi sunt qui pactionis vinculo se astrinxerint in servitutem (bond, 
vinculum.) — Nativus, qui natus est servus. Yillani glebse ascripti." 

These passages certainly suggest the verb To Bind as the origin 
of the words Bond and Bondage : however the author does not 
neglect to remind us, on the authority of Pontanus, that with 
the Danes " Bonde est rusticus, colonus, unde fribunder, liberi 
coloni : " where its union with the adjective free seems to ren- 
der the derivation from To Bind inadmissible, and leads us to 
conclude that Bondage is sometimes merely used to express a 
kind of tenure or occupation. So it is said " Tenere in Bondagio 
idem valet quod tenere in Yillenagio." It is not at all unlikely, 
however, that an equivocal etymology may have modified^ the 

■^ Junius refers to Banish Bonde, herns, dominus, wliich he erroneously 
considers as distinct. 

^ llicliardson says jjast participle, but it is obviously the 2}rese?it. 

* Bond, cultivator: 1. generally; 2, under villciuige ; and hence 
naturally enough confounded with 2h Bind. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. XXXV 

signification of the word in subsequent use ; as there are cu- 
rious instances in the history of words of such changes having 
been effected ; and it may have been used in two different 
senses, each of them to be referred to a distinct origin. 

This resemblance to the preterite of Bind has misled E,ud- 
diman and puzzled Jamieson, in the explanation of the word 
BowN, another of the derivatives of the same word Buan, in 
its sense of colere or parare ; but which Ruddiman refers to 
Binban, ligare : I am hound for such a place, '^^ metaphora a 
militibus sumpta, qui, cum ad iter parati sunt, sarcinas omnes 
habent colligatas, unde Lat. accingi ad iter.^' 

"Do dight and mak govv bone.'' — Hearne's Robert of Brunne, p. 170. 
Ruddiman, in deriving Bonn from Abunben, (expeditus, 
Somner,) adds " hoc vero a verbo binban, ligare : '^ — and 
Jamieson remarks that the A.- Sax. abucben, '^'^ if rightly trans- 
lated expeditus, appears as an insulated term, not allied to 
any other words in that language." Its allies are no doubt, 
however, to be found in jebunb, ^ebiin, ^ebon, derivatives 
of Buan, colere, parare, as we find in king Alfred^s account 
of Ohthere's voyage : Oros. p. 22. paet lanb paej- eall 
^ebon on o^pe healpe J^aejie eaf . ne mette he seji nan 
3;ebnnb lanb.^ The land was all cultivated [or inhabited] 
on the other side of the water. He had met before with no 
cultivated land. Da Beojimaf heepbon fpi^e pell ^ebun 
hyjia lanb. The Beormas had exceedingly well cultivated 
their land. 

The verb Bo, Bua, Bauan, Byan, signifying to prepare, to 
cultivate, to occupy, to build, and the substantive connected 
with which is Bu, (Scotch hoo, hov^,) a farm, or dwelling, has 
supplied us with several words, which may be thus arranged : 
Present participle : — A.-S. Boi ba, Buenb, an inhabitant, 

master of the house, husband, farmer : 
Participial adjective: — A.-S. Ifebim, Abunben. Icel. Buinn. 

Scotch and 0. Engl. Bowne ; tilled, prepared, ready : 
Substantive {the agent,) : — A.-S. Eebup. Germ. Bauer. Engl, 

Boor; neighbotir [Nor/. Bor] : 

^ What was the nature of the x. boiibe-lanb that abbot Beonne let to 
alderman Cuthbriht at Swinesheafde, anno 775 ? Sax. Chroii. p. 61. 
Was it cultivated land ; or land held on conditions which the tenant was 
bound to perform ? 



XXXVl ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

Substantive: — B^p, Buji, Bovver; a habitation: — and, with 
the adjectival termination, ByjfiiJ, or BlipiJ : which would 
then be referred to Goth. ISAHKrS, Francic hurg, a 
city ; and not to K^VlKf* a hill, the representatives of 
which latter are A.-S. beOj ; Francic, berg,pereg. See 
p. 437. — The distinction has always been preserved in all 
the cognate languages : 

Nih mail hurg uuerdan giborgun 

Ubar berg gisezzita. — Tatian Harm. cap. 25. 
Nor may a city be hidden, set upon a hill 
Thus king Alfred in his Orosius has Alexanbpia J'sepe bypij, 
Romebiiph,Tipnm )7a biip3,binnan J^sepebtijii^: butCiiii- 
capupfe beoph/ at J?aem beop^iun Cauca/^np, T^thlanj" 
Jjseiii beopje. Bergen, beop-^ail, to hide, keep, defend, al- 
ways agrees in its characteristic vowels with bairg, beopj, berg, 
a hill ; hence hornberg, heuberg, and our Barn. 

The origin of bound in the sense of limit does not seem 
clear. 

P. 492. 
LOOSE and LOSE, however nearly they resemble each other 
in the present English orthography, have come down to us as 
representatives of two quite distinct families ; and I see no evi- 
dence of their common parentage. The hasty assumption, that 
words which are similar in appearance or sound are always to be 
referred to the same source, will frequently mislead. Truth is 
to be obtained, not by such conclusions a priori, but by an 
accurate examination of the facts which appear in the history 
of any words under examination. It is only in the absence of 
historical facts that conjecture and hypothesis are to be ad- 
mitted. There are indeed several instances which seem to 
countenance the paradoxical opinion of a very profound phi- 
lologist, the late Mr. William Taylor, that languages are con- 
fluent; for some words bearing a near resemblance to each 
other, instead of having diverged from a common root, appear 
on the contrary to have converged towards a similarity of 
orthography and a certain adaptation or confusion even of 
meaning. Instances are to be found of the tendency of popu- 

^ Mr. Dailies Barrington translates beofihte, " parched by the sun : " 
p. 4. I have no doiil)t it means " mountainous," from beofih. See the 
context. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. IXXVll 

lar usage to confound words having a resemblance to the ear, 
by changes in orthography or modifications of their original 
sense ; and though it would be unreasonable to make the ex- 
ceptions the rule_, yet this tendency should be borne in mind, 
as sometimes giving the right clue to the truth. 

The distinct families to which Loose and Lose respectively 
belong are to be traced from the earliest records of the Teu- 
tonic languages^ each having throughout its appropriate and 
clearly distinct signification. To begin with Ulphilas : 

M. Goth. AAnSQ An, liberare, . AIHSAN", perdere, destruere : 
solvere : Laus, liler^ TraZx^^saQ, &c. 
fraZ«/^6Jan, &c. 
A. Sax. Lef an, Lyj^aii, Ou-lej^an, Leoj'an, Lopan, jzojileoj-an, pofi-*' 

lopen. 

Suio. G. Losa, Lossa Lisa, perdere (litre). 

Alam. Losan, Yerloosan. . . . Forliosan, Firliusan. 

Belg, Lessen, Loozen, . . . Liezen,Veiiiezen,Verlieren : [rfor*, 

Adj. Los as in was, were ; freeze, frore. 

Germ. Losen, loste, gelost, Verlieven, A'"erlor, Verloren : Suhst. 

Aufiosen, Adj. Los. . Yerliess, (dungeon, oubliette.) 
(Ten Kate, ii. 267.) Formeiiy Veiieusen and Yeiiiesen 

for Yerlieren ; whence still in N. 
Germany Yerlesen for Yerloren. 
Lkgl. Loose, Loosen. Lose, lese. Forlorn : Suhst. Loss, 

Lorel, Losel. 

Mr. Richardson^ following his theory of the identity of words 
that resemble each other^ gives Loose and Lose as " the same 
word, somewhat differently applied," and this he supports by 
the following novel and extraordinary explanation of To Lose : 
^^ To dismiss, to separate, part or depart from ; to give up, to 
quit, to resign, relinquish, or abandon the hold, property, or 
possession of; to dispossess, to deprive, to diminish, to waste, 
to ruin, to destroy ; " which are evidently very wide of the real 
meaning of the word, and serve only to favour a fancied and 
erroneous etymology, which derives Loose from liusan, To lose. 
To destroy ; whereas, on the contrary, the root from which it 
really comes signifies To free, redeem, regain, and gives the 
German appellation for our Saviour. A dictionary formed ou 
such principles can only bewilder and mislead. 

P. 594. MANY.- '' OQycel m&m-i;ar —Mark 5, 24. 

P. 607. 610. TRUTH.—" Many ?ifals treuthe.''—F. PI. ed. 
Whit. 398. 



XXXVlll ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

P. 624. 

^^We apprehend that Home Tooke was mistaken in as- 
signing a verbal* origin (as being derived from 3rd pers. sing, 
indie.) to our abstract substantives in tli ; and that they are 
mostly formed from adjectives. Thus from long, length, &c. 
— Now this terminative tJi is as likely to be a coalescence of the 
article with the adjective^ as to be the person of a verb. The 
long, &c. is a natural expression for length_, &c. ; but in order to 
support Tooke^s derivation^ we must suppose a verb To Ions', 
&c. and define length, that which longeth ; which would be 
absurd. Though H. T. was not learned in the northern tongues, 
his sagacity is still admirable when he is pursuing a wrong 
scent. Another argument against his opinion is, that those 
substantives in th, which appear to have a verbal origin, assert a 
passive rather than an active sense. Thus math means the thing 
moton, not that which moweth ; so broth, ruth, stealth, and in all 
these cases the infinitive in coalescence with the article forms a 
natural equivalent expression : the mow of hai/, &c. We infer 
that the formative th is a transposed article.^': — Monthly Review, 
for Jan. 1817, N^S. vol. Ixxxii. p. 83. 

In Suio- Gothic the definite article is a sufiix. Stealth, how- 
ever, is the act of stealing, not the thing stolen : birth is either 
the act of bearing, or the thing born. For a very full exami- 
nation of substantives terminating in t, d, and th, in all the 
Teutonic languages, see Grimm, ii. pp. 193, 224, 241. 

P. 639. CHURCH. KIRK. 

Mr. Tooke adopts without hesitation the common opinion 
with regard to the Greek origin of the word CHURCH. A 
friend has suggested, that in order to make this probable, it 
ought first to be shown that the word KvpcaKr) was in use in that 
signification among the Greek and Latin ecclesiastical writers, 
so as that the Teutonic tribes could have borrowed it from 
them. Walafrid Strabo alleges Athanasius, Tlta S. Antonii, as 
using KvpiaKov to signify a temple. Ulphilas merely adopts the 
Greek word ecclcsia. Ephes. 5. 25. &c. AIKKABSQX. 
Kirch, therefore, had not been introduced in his time. 

In the Glossary to Schilter's Thesaurus, v. Chiric, some very 
ancient forms are given, as, Chirihh, Kirihh, from the prefix 
chi, or ge, and rihhe, regnum, sc. Christi, as is well suggested 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. XXXIX 

by Diecmann in his dissertation on tlie word ; — others^ favour- 
ing tlie doctrine of election, refer it to ¥ir, and hiren, eligere; 

Lipsius to cirJiy circus. Wachter gives instances of hilcli for 

cliurch_, which he conjectures may be derived from helik, used 
for a Tower, and for the chamber where Christ ate the last 
supper with his disciples. He also refers to Korg, HearJi, 
fanum, delubrum, common to all the Teutonic tribes in the 
times of idolatry, and wiiich he says differs very little from 
kirchj but thinks it improbable (perhaps without sufficient 
reason) that the first Christian missionaries among them should 
have borrowed it. See the Glossary to the Edda, Part II., 
1818, V. Havrgr, J^eapj, epKo<;. There is a much stronger ob- 
jection to this etymology, inasmuch as temple is but a subordi- 
nate sense of the word. 

^ P. 651. 654. 

THE PRESENT PARTICIPLE.— [^^7^5 was formerly known 
in our language hy the termination -and. It is now known by the 
termination -ing."] 

The substitution of the Present Participle in ing for the an- 
tient one in ande or ende has not, I believe, been satisfactorily 
accounted for. Mr. Tyrwhitt, speaking of the language of 
Chaucer, says ; ^^ the participle of the present time began to 
be generally terminated in ing, as loving ; though the old form 
which terminated in ende or ande was still in use, as lovende or 
lovande" Mr. Grant, in his excellent Grammar, p. 141, con- 
jectures that this change may have arisen from the nasal 
sound given by the Normans to and or ant having led to their 
being written with a g. But this necessarily supposes the ter- 
mination ing not to have existed before the Conquest ; ^ whereas 
it had always been employed in Anglo-Saxon and in other 
Gothic dialects to form a large class of Verbal Substantives, 
such as A.-S. pununj, mansio, woning, Chaucer;^ Germ, die 
wohnung ; Dutch, wooning ; a dwelling. Instead, therefore, of 
ende being changed into ing, both these terminations coexisted 
in Anglo-Saxon and Old English, as they still do in Dutch and 
German, the one being used for forming the Present Participle 
and the other the Verbal Substantive. 

^ Ande should also have disappeared when ing was established. We 
shall however find both in use together down to tiie 16th century. 
' " His wonyng was ful fayr upon an heth." — Prologue, 1. 608. 



XI ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

It follows then tliat what we are often told by grammarians 
of the Present Participle being used to form Verbal Substan- 
tives cannot be true : ^ for substantives in ing had been com- 
mon in our language for ages before ever the participle had had 
this termination : and the correspondent verbals in ing or ung in 
German and Dutch cannot possibly have any relation to the 
Present Participle, which in those languages has no such ending. 
Yet Greenwood and others ^ tell us that " this participle is often 
used as a substantive," p. 142 ; and that the participle '' is 
turned into a substantive." 

But let us see whether exactly the reverse may not be the 
true account of the matter, and try whether, instead of the Par- 
ticiple being used as a Substantive, it be not the fact that the 
Substantive is used as a Present Varticiple ; and that our antient 
Participle in ende has been displaced^ and superseded by the 
Verbal Substantives in ing. 

Greenwood adds : " This Participle is used in a peculiar 
manner with the verb To Be, &c., as / was writi7ig, &c., and 
in this case a is often set before the participle (participle he 
must have it) ; as. He was a dying, She came here a crying^ 
8ic. Dr. Wallis makes this a to be put for at,^ denoting as 

^ Mr. Tooke's conjecture, at p. 394, that the Verbal Substantive 
originated from the Past Participle, as Buildings, q. Bnildens, is quite 
unfounded. 

^ " From to begin comes the participle beginning, as I am beginning the 
work ; which is turned into a substantive, as, In the beginning,'" p. 145. 

" Participles sometimes perform the office of substantives, and are used 
as such : as, The beginning, Excellent loriting : " Lindley Murray's Gram- 
mar, p. 77. " The present participle, v\^ith the definite article the before 
it, becomes a substantive:" Ibid. p. 183. "Terminations of the sub- 
stantive of the thing, from the Saxon : — ing is obviously the termination 
of the imperfect participle." — Baldwin's very useful New Guide, [by the 
late Mr. Godwin,] p. xliii. Dr. Lumsden considers it as a great defect 
in our language, " that most of the nouns ending in ing are at once parti- 
ciples and substantive nouns." — Per. Gram. Pre/, xxv. 

" •' Eeplaced " would be the term, in the current jargon of the day, in- 
troduced by clumsy translators from the French, who confound replocer 
and remplacer, and use Eeplace as an ugly hybrid to signify indiscrimi- 
nately either supersede, or reinstate. — ' Wellington, ay ant remplace [suc- 
ceeded] Melbourne, replaqait Peel.' 

* Here Greenwood is inaccurate ; for Wallis says, " valet at, seu in ; " 
and that it would be a participle if the a were away. 

" A-twisting, in torquendo, inter torquendum, torquendo jam occupa- 
tus. A non est hie loci articulus numeraHs, sed particula praepositiva, 
seu Praepositio quae in* connexione valet at, seu in ; preefigitur verbal! 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. xli 



much as while; e.g. a-dymg^ kc, i.e. vjhile any one is 
Perhaps a is here redundant/' p. 148. 

Supposing his writing, and crying, and dying to be indeed 
participles, he might well consider the a redundant. But they 
are substantives, and to this the a bears witness. This a, he 
rightly states, " is undoubtedly the remains of the preposition 
on rapidly pronounced/^ and gives as instances, a fisschinge, 
jR. Glouc. 186. An huntyng, 199; on j'lep, an jiep, asleep, 
Saa^. Chron. Is not dying then the verbal substantive? He 
was a-dying. Ille fuit in ohitu — a mode of expression, which 
being in many cases capable of representing the Present Par- 
ticiple in ende, was used for it, and at length, by a subaudition 
of the on or a, gradually supplanted it. 

The following instances, taken from among a number which 
were collected in an attempt to investigate the subject, may 
throw some light on the progress of this change : and it will be 
seen that I have not met with any case of verbals in ing being 
employed strictly as Present Participles before the 14th cen- 
tury;^ though in the writers of that period, this use is exceed- 
ingly prevalent^ almost to the exclusion of the participle in 
ande, which, however, kept its ground in the Scottish and 
Northern writers to a much later period. 

1. Present Participle in ande, ende.^ 

MatL 8. %%.— Gothic, ic[> GiS 11 srArp A Nd A ns rA- 

twisting a verbo twist, addita terminatione formativa ing. Si abesset 
praefixum a, foret Participium Activum, Agentem innuens, contorquens. 
Sed, propter praefixam prsepositionem, est hie loci nomen verbale in- 
nuens Actionem ; quod et Gerundiorum vices supplet ; adeoque expo- 
nendum erit in torsione existens, sen in torquendo, aut inter torquendum ; 
iunuitque Agentem jam in ipso opere occupatum." — Gram. Angl. p. 243. 

•^ Layamon, however, has since the above was written supplied me 
with instances in the 13th century. 

^ " D. est litera participialis, et nota originis ex participio. Solent 
enim Prisci ex participiis form are substantiva, et terminationem partici- 
pialem derivatis relinquere, tanquam custodem originis. Hsec una litera 
nos quasi manu ducit ad permulta vocabulorum secreta intelligenda, 
quae certe suam significandi vim non aliunde habent quam a prsesentis 
temporis participio a quo oriuntur. Hujusmodi sunt, abend vespera, ab 
aben deficere ; heiland servator, ab lieilen servare; freund amicus, afreyen 
amare ; feind inimicus, a Jien odisse ; wind ventus, a wehen flare ; vtond 
luna, a manen monere." — WacMer, Proleg. § vi. See also Lamb, ten 
Kate, ii. 77 : and Gvimm, vol. iv. p. 64. 

d 



Xlii ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

Aiti^riN IN hAiK^A s\^eme.—j. sax. :3:11b 1115 ^a 

utjanjenbe jzejabon on ^a yym. — Fra7ico-Th. Sie tlio uzgangaw^e fuorun 
in tliiu swin. — Memish, Antw. 1542. En wten menscen g^ende, zy in de 
cudde der verckenen gegaen. j\nd tliey going out, went into the swine. 

Matt. 9. 2.-ilNA AirKA AirANdAN. On bebbe 

licgenbe. Liccenbe m bejre. — Durham B. Liggynge in a bed. — Wicl. 

Byjinenbe fy]\. Cadm. 83. burning fire. Tpa men,..coman jiibenb. 

Chr. Sax. an. 1137. Two men came riding. — iiii wiUis in the abbei ever 

^Ynend. Hickes, p. 11. Four wells in the abbey ever running. 

Versions of the Gospels (14th century) : — " And he prechyde sayande, 
a stalworther thane I schal come eftar me, of whom I am not worthi 
downfalk^^e, or knelande, to louse the thwonge of his chaucers." — 
Mark 1. 7. Baber's WicUf, Pre/. 

" rusehyt amang thaim sa rudly, 

Stekand thaim so dispitously, 
And in sik fusoun herand doun, 

And shjand thaim forowtyn ransoun." J5«r5. Bruce, b. 9. 1. 250. 
2. Verbal Substantive in ing.^ 

A. S. Pmeb heom untellenblice pinmj. Chron. Sax. an. 1137. Tor- 
mented them with unutterable tortures. Bjiennunj, combustio ; hale- 

^ "Ung. — Omnibus veterum dialectis, si Gothicam excipias, usitatum. 
Quid significet non liquet. Sed non ideo meram et arbitrariam vocis desi- 
nentis flexionem esse existimem, cum quia vetustas et longus sseculorum 
ordo multa delevit quse hodie ignorantur, tum quia jam ssepe vidimus 
niultis particulis quosdam inesse secretos significatus, quos neque nostra 
neque superior setas animadvertit. Praecipuus ejus usus est in formandis 
substantivis, non omnibus promiscue, sed iis qu8e actionem aut passio- 
nem rei significant. Ita Anglosaxonibus thancimg est gratiarum actio, 
Prancis et Alamannis auchung augmentatio, Germanis samlung collectio, 
et alia innumera, a verbis oriunda. Ssepe etiam uni composito duplicem 
scnsum, activum et passivum communicat. lixdi^ veracJitwi g cowitmiws, 
tam is quo quis contemnit, quam quo conteranitur." — Wachter. Prol. § vi. 

" Onder de allergemeenzaemsten onzer uitgangen behoort ons Inge 
(bij inkort. Ing) dat, agter het worteldeel der P^erha gevoegt zijnde, een 
Substant. Foemininmii uitmaekt, om de dadelijke werking te verbeelden ; 
als DoENiNGE, DoENiNG Actio, Van DoEN agere. Zoo mede in 't F-Th. 
Hung, bij ons Hinge, festinatio, van 't F-Th. Ilan festinare ; en F-Th. 
Heilizung salutatio, van 't F-Th. Hellizan, sahitare, enz : en in 't A-Sax- 
isch heeft men Unge & Ung & Ing ; als A.-S. JFlbiunge desideriura, van 't 
A.-S. IFihiian desiderare ; A.-S. Ceaping & Ceapung emtio, van 't A.-S. 
Ceapmi em ore ; A.-S. For-g aging transgressio, van 't A.-S. For-gcvgeaii 
praeterire ; A.-S. Tmounnnge inhabitatio, van 't A.-S. Lncunion inhabitare, 
enz. En, in 't lloogd. komt do Ung zoo gemeen als bij ons de ING ; 
diis in 't II-P., Bclohnung Mcrccs, bij ons Belooning ; enz. 

" Van oudcr tijd dan 't A-Saksisch en F-Thuitsch ken ik geene voor- 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. xliii 

gmg, consecratio ; "cimbjiung, sedificatio, eedificiura ; Germ, die ziminer* 
ting ; Butch, timmerm^, a building. Fr. Th. vehiungVi, jiih-cung, regulse ; 
dioXungouo, ])olun5, passionibus ; zemanM;zyu, manung, admonitioiiem ; 
samam««^u, gejromnung, ecclesiis. — Gley, Litt. des Francs. 

Temptation, in the Lord's Prayer is expressed by the following, in 
various dialects : Gotli. f^KAlSTriENQill,' led. freist%. Ir. 
Tlieot. WiQXunka, ohoxunga, mQ^OYunka, co^iunga. Bano-Sax. coj^tnung, 
cojftung, cujr'cnuns. Germ, bechon^^z^e, versiichz'jzy. Swiss. fersuoch?«z^. 
Augsb. versuacliOTz^, fersech^m^. Fries. versieki?«y. Molkw. voarsiekj/;z^. 
Hindelop. bekoorie??^. Netherland. hecoringhe, \eYsoeckinge. NetherSacks. 
weisuchung, hekoringe, hedoeiinge, bether«<;z^. OberSachs. versuchww^, 
anfecht«m^, &c. 

Hampole (14th centmy) : — " In the expownk^ I felogh holi doctors." 
— Prologue to Psalter. 

beelden of medegetuigen van dezen uitgang. Bij 't M-Gottisch, en 't 
Oude Kimbrisch, nogte ook in de Graramatica van het tegenwoordige 
Yslandsch laet hij zig niet zien. In het Engelsch gaet het Pdzr^zaj^zV^^ 
Prcesens Adjective, op ING in stee van ENDE, dat bij ons en anderen 
van Duitsche en Kimbrische afkomst zig vertoont ; als Eng. Loving 
bij ons Lievende, in 't H-D. Liehende. Dog voor 't Eug. Love amare, 
heeft men in 't Zweedsch, Deensch, en Ysl. Elsha araare, welks Farticip. 
Frees. Activ. is in 't Zweedsch Elskande, in 't Deensch Elskendis, en 
in 't Ysl. Elskende, amans, enz. Uit welken hoek nu, of uit wat voor 
een eigen stam, ons INGE gesproten zij, heb ik nog niet tot mijn ge- 
noegen konnen opspeuren. Zo men 't van ons Innige intimum, zou 
willen afleiden, zo blijft de zin nog te gewrongen ; behalven dit, zo ken 
ik geene oudheid daer dit innig in stee van ons ING zig vertoont, niet 
tegenstaende de voUedigheid onder 't Oude minst gekreukt is. De 
M-Gottische terminatie ains of eins of ons, als M-G. Lihains (Leving), 
Fodeins (Voeding), en Salbons (Zalving), enz. zijnde van gelijk geslagt 
gebruik en zin, zou wel met in, of un, of on, of an, beantword schijnen, 
dog de agterste G ontbreekt 'er dan nog ; en zou 'er sedert in stee van 
IG moeten bij gekomen zijn ; maer met deze onderstelling' zag ik dit 
op ons voorgemelde Innig wederom uitdraeijen ; 't gene om de bij ge- 
bragte rede niet aennemelijk is. Ik stack dan liever het verder gissen, 
zo lang ik nog niets bedenken kan, dat op een' goeden schijn rust, ofte 
proeve van overweging' mag uitstaen." — Lamb, ten Kate, ii. 81. See 
also Grimm's Grammatik, ii. 349. 359. 

Verbal substantives were formed with each of these terminations ; but 
those in end denoted the agent, as j^e ))a;]enb, the Saviour ; and those 
in ing the action, or its effect, as building, the act or what is produced 
by it ; chepyng, traffic, or the place appropriated for it. Wachter says, 
" actionem aut passionem rei." Thus we have CloatJdng, Coating, Firing, 
Grating, Fating, Schooling, Sheeting, Stabling, Shavings, Savings. 

^ " Die enduug uhnja scheint unser ung zu seyn." — Adelmujs Mithri- 
dates, ii. 188. See Grimm, ii. 366; Gothic termination in bn. 

d 2 



Xliv - ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

*' His apparell is souldier-lyke, better knowen by hys fearce doynges 
then by hys gay gOT/n^." — i?. AscJmm, p. 26. 

" Eor avoidm^ of the playhouse : " — a noun, governing that which 
follows in the genitive. — " Will by tJie pulling down of the said [Gresham] 
College be put an end to." — Act, 8th Geo. III. 

3. In the following passages both the terminations occur_, 
but each is employed appropriately, — ende for the Present 
Participle^ and ing for the Verbal Substantive. 

Alfred's Bade : — ]pe ne psej' onbjiebenbe ^a beo^cunge Jjaej^ ealboji- 
mannej". lib. 1. c. 7. Neqaaquam minas principis metuit. 

Gospels, Harl. MSS. 5085. Translation in a Northern Dialect (14)th 
century) : — " This is the testimonm^e of Ion." " I am a uoice of a 
ci'iajid in desert." 

" Ther ne is no waspe in this world that wil foUoke styngen 

For stappy;«y on a too of a stjncand frere." — F. Flonghmanes Crede. 
" ...such thyngis that are Yikand 

Tyll mannys \iQYyng ar plesfl^?^^." — Ba7-h. Bruce, (1357.) b. 1. 1. 9. 
*' Hors, or hund, or othir thing 

That war plesa^<^ to thar likzw^." 1. 207. 

" Full low inclinawt? to their queen full clear, 
Whom for their noble nourishm^ they thank." 

B unbar : Ellis's Spec. i. 389. 
Lord Herries (1568): — Our sovereign \i3i\and her majesty's promise 
be writm^ of luff, friendship," &c. — Robertsons Scotl. App. xxvii. 

Bishop of St. Androus (1572): — "jiat ge keimand the faultis and how 

thai suld be amendit, for ])air is na buke sa perfitly prentit, bot sura 

faultis dois eschaip in the printz;?^ thairof." " He plainly forbiddis al 
scismes and discord in teachm^, sayand, Let na scismes be amang gow." 
— CatecMsme, Fref. p. 2. 

4. The following are instances of the indiscriminate use of 
ENDE and ING as terminations of the Present Participle. 

" herdis of oxin and of fee. 

Fat and tydy, Y^and over all quhare. 

In the rank gers pasturm^ on raw." Gawin Boughs, b. 3. p. 75. 

" the tender flouris I saw 

Under dame Naturis mantill lurkyw^ law. 
The sraaU fowlis in flokkis saw I fle, 
To Nature rndkand greit lamentatioun." 

Sir B. Lijndmy, (1528.) i. 191. 
" Changy^z^ in sorrow our sang melodious, 
Quliilk we had wont to sing, with gude intent, 
Resoundawc? to the lievinnis firmament." Ibid. i. 193. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. xlv 

Lord Herries (1568) : — " Or, iQ.iMng hereof, that she would permit 

her to return in her awin countrie, seeand that she was corned in her 

realm upon her wiitings and promises of friendship." — Ubi sup. 

5. The following are passages from the earliest authors, so 
far as I have been able ^ to find, in whose writings the Present 
Participles are formed by ing : 

Hampole (middle of the 14th century) : — " Thou fattide myn heued in 
oyle : and my chalys drunkeny/^^ what is cleer." ^ — Ps. 33. I suppose 
this to be the participle. The version is from the Vulgate : " Et calyx 
mens inebrians quam prseclarus est ! " and comes remarkably near the 
Saxon : Xnb cahc min bjruncnenb hu beafiht ly. — Spelmans Psalt. 

Flers JPloukman (about 1362) : — Each of the three of which Dr. 
Whitaker gives specimens has present participles in i?iff : but he says that 
in some MSS. both of that poem and of Wiclif's Bible the English has 
been somewhat modernized : 

" Thenne a waked Wrathe, whit to white even, 
Whit a nyvylinge nose, nyppy^zy hus lyppes." — MS. A. 

" Snevelywy wilp his nose, and his nekke hang;^w_^." — MS. B. 

"And nyyeli/nffe wi]? ]?e nose, and his necke hangywye." — MS. OrieL 

" al the foure ordres 

Vrechpige the peple, for profit of the wombe. 
And ^\o?>ynge the godspel, as hem good lykede." 

Chaucer: — "Alas, I ^^t-^yng am constrnined to begin verse of so- 
roweful matter, that whilom in flourishyw<7 studie made delitable ditees. 
For lo, Ttwiiyng muses of the poetes enditen to me thinges, &c." — Boet. 
b. i. I. — " Talkyw^ on the way," " ^'^%%yng on the strond." Mar- 

^ Further search should be made in the writers of the 12th and 13th 
centuries. Should 1 ever have leisure for a little work which I might 
call Semi-Saxonica, the results of future inquiries may find a place there. 
The numerous additions made to our sources of information by the 
printing of the writings of the period referred to will greatly assist such 
inquiries. The publication of the two texts of Layamon, at the expense 
of the Society of Antiquaries, under the able superintendence of Sir 
Frederic Madden, may be looked forward to as a most important con- 
tribution to the materials for studying English philology. This is a task 
requiring no small labour and skill, as " MS. Otho C. XIIl. is now only 
a bundle of fragments, having suffered severely in the fire of 1731." — 
Thorpe's Analecta, Pref. viii. Mr. Thorpe's valuable labours are still 
employed upon the writings of an earlier period ; and it is to be hoped 
that in due time we shall have an edition of the Ormulura. Mr. Kemble 
has also done much for the elucidation of the earlier and more difficult 
Saxon remains. 

' See Mr. Baber's WicUJ', Ixvii. Bib. Reg. 18. D. 1. 



xlvi 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. 



c7iani''s 2nd Tale. And so passim. I believe it requii'es a long search in 
Chaucer's works to find a participle in ande} 

Wiclif. — In the text printed by Mr. Baber, ing, yng, ynge^ are used 
both for the verbal and the participle : as " Stondyw^e ydel in the chep- 
yng" — Matt. 20. "John bar witnessm^^ and seide, that T seigh the 
spirit comynge down as a culvar." — John 1. And in numerous instances 
the use of the present participle is avoided by employing the relative 
and verb : as " to men that saten at the mete," instead of " to the sit- 
tande at mete," in the older version — Mark 6. 23. But among the 
specimens of the MSS. of the version attributed to Wiclif, which Mr. 
Baber has given, p. Ixx. we find the following variation ; MS. Bib. Beg. 
I. c. viTi. " precyouse stoonys hangyw^e in the forheed, and chaungyw^e 
clothis : " Mr. Donee's MS. " jemmes in the frount hangende and chaung- 
ing cloths." — Is. 3. 22. Gemmas in fronte pendentes, et mutatoria. 
Where I take changing to be a substantive, — clothes for a change, not 
clothes that change. 

From all wliicli_, it appears that though the use of ing for the 
present participle was fully established in the 14tli century, 
the age of Langland, Chaucer, and Wiclif, yet the antient 
aude was still occasionally used, both being found in the 
same writers, and sometimes in the very same sentence ; and 
in the North, to the end of the 16tli century. This seems to 
me a convincing proof that the change was not effected by an 
alteration in the sound or orthography of an inflection ; but 
by the rivalry and increasing prevalence of a phrase in some 
cases equivalent to, and which has come at length to be wholly 
substituted for, our former participle : as if, for instance, 
instead of tu recubans suh tegmine, — thou lying (licTenb) 
under the shade, — we should say, ttt in recuUtu, &c., thou 
a-lying, &c. 

6. I shall now add some instances which may help to ex- 
plain this change or substitution. It may be superfluous to 

^ The following may be added to the instances given in the former 
edition: — Lay anion (about 1215): — where the two texts Otho and Calig. 
furnish abundant opportunities of comparing various forms : 
Calig. Ne g^nmnde ne Y\(\inde. Otho. Ne goinde ne ridlgge. 1. 1582. 
Calig. Heo riden smginge. Otho. singende. 1. 26946. 

Calig. Ipxs ii'Sende hi weren lai^e. Otho. jjeos iicUifge hira were lojjo. 1. 1 03 8. 
Flotvman's Tale (if that be Chaucer's): — "In glitters y/r/<? golde." 1. 2074 
and 2102. It is to be regretted that there exists no critical edition of 
Chaucer which can be rcHed on in philological inquiries. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. xlvii 

give instances of verbals with a ov an^ prefixt ; but as tbey may 
perhaps help to throw light on this inquiry/ I shall add a few. 

"Jjat bejj ago to day auyssynge." Bob. Glouc. p. 265. 

(that are gone to day a-fishing.) 

" we have 

A wyndow a worcheng." P. Fl. in WartoUy ii. 506. 

" To morrow ye shall yn huntyng fare." 

Squire of Low Degree ^ Warton^ 8vo. 3. 9. 
" thus shall ye ryde 
On haukyng by the ryvers syde." lUd. p. 11. 

"And ride an hawkyng by the rivere." — R. of Sir Thop. v. 3245. 
" On huntyng ben they ridden." Knighfs Tale, (1689). 

^ That the a prefixt to many words is the representative of the an- 
cient 071, sometimes equivalent to in, and not of at as Johnson asserts, 
appears clearly from the following, written indiiferently with on, an, or a : 
alive: — "The Erie of Salisburye was taken on lyve'' — Fabijan, 383. 
aside: — "for hope of life was set on side." — Rail, Hen. YI. fol. 103. 
aboard: on board: asunder : in sunder. — Ps. 46, 9. 
asleep : — " With that he fell on slepe.'' — HolinsJied, death of Edw. IV. 
" Fell on sleep." — Acts 13. 36 ; in our present bibles. So in Barker's 
1585; and in Cranmer's 1553. The Dutch translation has "w 
ontslapen," A.S. onj'lsepan, obdormiscere. 
aioahe, awoke, A.S. oupoc, apoc. — GTir. Sax. MS. Laud. 
In Weber's Eomances, iii. 49, we find an-honge ; in Trevisa's Chro- 
nicle, " This geer kyng Henry ordeynede that theeves scholde be an 
hanged." And in Layamon, 1. 1023, "fat he sculde beon anliongen, oper 
mid horsen to-drawen." 

" Al that lyveth other looketh, a londe and a water" 

P. Plouhnan, pass. 4. 1. 29. 

anon, a two : — " It kerueth a two and breaketh a two hem that were 

made of one fleshe." — Chaucer, Persons Tale, fol. 115. ^non is 

A.S. on an, i?i one ; while atone is at one. 

Also, on pixobe, John 21. 3. auisseth, B. Glouc. 264. (a fishing), an 

honteth. ib. 283, &c. on hejigo]), Chr. Sax. 

Sometimes a represents of, as in ashamed for opjrceamob ; thus, 
athirst, anhungred. Matt. 4. In Piers Plouhman, these are written 
a fyngred and a fyrste, which Whitaker absurdly explains in his 
Glossary, "frost-bitten and with aching fingers ; " 

" Meny other men, that muche wo sufPren 

Both afyngrede and afurst:" — pass. 10, p. 151, 
he paraphrases — "both galled in \)i\.^V!: fingers v^\\)a. frost ! " But 
Andrew Borde says of the Cornish man " Fynger [hunger] iche do 
abyd ; " and they agree with A.S. ojz-hingjaian, op-^ififce ; yet the 
form awhungred had led me in the last edition to refer them to on. 
In the phrase " At a Lady," on Lady day, the a is no doubt ' our.' 
^ Hickes mentions a Dano-Saxon substitute for the Present Participle, 
Thes. t. i. p. 133. 



Xlviii ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

"Thy ciyes, baby, set my bead on aking." — Si/dn. Arcad. p. 521. 
" He was tbe wretchedst thing when be was yong ; 

So long a growing." Richard III. act 2. sc. 4. 

" Tbe byssbop badde a faire tour a makyng." — Glossary to 'Robert of 
Gloucester, p. 704. "A knigbt tbat bad been on bunting." — Prmce 
Arthur, cb. 88. " Wben I am called from bim I fall on weeping." — 
Ascham's Schole-master, fob 11. b. 1. "And going on buntyng." — 
Stomas Summary^ p. 10. " T\Tiile5t be is in tbe anointing." — Frynne's 
Signal Loyalty, p. 252. " Wbile tbese sentences are in reading." — 
Communion Service, in tbe Offertory. "Wbiles tbat is in singing." — 
Coronation of Henry VII. in Ives's Select Papers, p. 115. " Wbiles 
tbe Offertorie was in playing at organs." — /5fc^. p. 136. " Wliile tbe 
flesb was in seetbing." — 1 Sam. 2. 13. " Wbile tbe ark was a pre- 
paring."— 1 Fet. 3. 20. 

Compare tlie following lines from the description of the pro- 
cession of Olympias^ by Davie^ with the corresponding ones by 
G ower : 

*' There was knygbtis turnyng 
There was maidenes cm'olyiny. 
There was champions skyrmyng. 
Of beom and of other wrastlyng, 

Of liouns chas, of beore baityng." Warton, ii. 55. 8vo. 

The words in yng here are substantives^ those which precede 
them being genitives, [tourneying of knights_, caroling of 
maidensj as is seen in the last two lines. Gower turns the 
phrase by employing the participle : 

" When as she passed by the streate 
There was ful many a tymbre beate, 
And many a maide carolewc?^. 
And thus throughout tbe town plaiende 
This quene unto the plaiene rode." Warton, ii. 56. 

Here we have a writer of a later period substituting the Present 
Participle for the Verbal Substantive, but retaining the old 
termination of the former. 

A greater collection of instances would probably throw fresh 
light on this change in our language : but enow have been given 
to prove at least that all speculations founded on the supposed 
derivation of verbals in imj from the Present Participle resem- 
ble historical disquisitions in which, facts and dates not being 
considered of any particular importance, it should be ingeniously 
argued a priori that Ilengist and Ilorsa were sons of Queen 
Anne and William the Conqueror. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. xlix 

It is evident^, moreover, that if the Present Participle were 
employed as a substantive, it must signify the agent and not 
the act. We find in the Anglo-Saxon and the kindred dialects 
J>selenb, Saviour; Scyppenb, Creator: See-li'Senb, sailor; Rib- 
benb, knight ; Demenb, judge, &c. — and we have even now 
Friend and Fiend, which are present participles of the Gothic 
word's for To love and To hate. These signify the doer ; but 
how can the active participle possibly signify the thing done? 
Make the trial in other languages : 

" quis fallere possit amantem ? " 

" Quel eimuy la va consumant 
D'estre si loing de son amant." 

After having told us that " the present participle with the 
definite article the before it becomes a substantive, and must 
have the preposition of after it, as, hy the observing of which,^ 
Lindley Murray gravely adds, " the article an or a has the same 
efiect.^^ — p. 183. The example he gives of the participle, as 
participating ^^ not only of the properties of a verb, but also of 
those of an adjective,^^ is singular enough; ^^I am desirous of 
knowing him.^^ I think it will be difficult to find any property 
of -an adjective here in the word hiowing. 

In the much- vaunted Kistory of Fiirojpean Languages by Dr. 
Alexander Murray, there is the following account of the 
Participle : 

"Tl%e participle of the present tense, which was compounded of the 
verb and two consignificatives, na, work; and da, do, make; may be 
exemplified in waganada, by contraction, waganda and wagand, 
shaking. In some dialects, ga, go, was used instead of da : Thus, 
waganga, shaking, wagging; which is the participial form adopted in 
modern English." — vol. i. p. 61. 

Here the student might suppose he would find the means 
of tracing up the participle in ing to an earlier date, and in 
various dialects : but Dr. Murray does not condescend to tell 
us what these dialects are.^ All with him is oracular : he 
seldom gives us the means of satisfying ourselves of the truth 
of his marvellous assertions, while he relates all the particu- 
lars of the mode in which languages were formed in the first 
ages of the world, as if they had been revealed to him super- 

^ Could he have meant that waganga is Mceso-Gothic? Without 
better evidence, we ought not to believe that the word ever existed. 
Speculations go on very smoothly with those who, like some of our news- 
paper philosophers, have the manufacturing of their own facts. 



1 ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

naturally. He gives abundance of elements and radicals, in- 
deed ; but so great a proportion of them are of bis own coinage, 
or moulded to suit liis purpose, that tbe student has no means 
of distinguishing what is real from what is fabricated. The 
burthen of the work is, that the following nine words are the 
foundations of language : 1. Ag, Wag, Hwag. 2. Bag, Bwag, 
Fag, Pag. 3. Dwag, Thwag, Twag. 4. Gwag, Cwag. 5. Lag, 
Hlag. 6. Mag. 7. Nag, Hnag. 8. Rag, Hrag. 9. Swag! 
— On which (foundation) he says, '^ an edifice has been erected 
of a more useful and wonderful kind than any which have exer- 
cised human ingenuity. They were uttered at first, and probably 
for several generations, in an insulated manner. The circum- 
stances of the actions were communicated by gestures, and the 
variable tunes of the voice ; but the actions themselves were ex- 
pressed by their suitable monosyllable.'" — p. 32. All which is 
further elucidated in Note P, p. 182, where we learn, that in 
the primitive universal language, bag wag meant. Bring water ; 
BAG, BAG, BAG 1 They fought very much : — and that such he 
considers " as a just and not imaginary specimen of the earliest 
articulated speech. ■'' 

On the subject of verbals in ing he has another extravagant 
and ridiculous speculation (vol. i. p. 85.), in which he thus de- 
duces from them our verbals in on, derived from the Latin and 
French : 

" Under this title also must be noticed all words terminating in n, 
except derivatives from the participles in nd, nt, or ng, which by cor- 
ruption have lost their final letters. Derivatives from the Latin or 
French, which terminate in on, with a few exceptions, ended in ang, 
ING, or ONG, the sign of a present participle.-^ Indeed there is reason 
to suspect that they originally stood as follows : reg, to direct, govern : 

REGIGONGA, a governing, ^region; relatigong or relatiging, 

a relating. These harsh but significative terminations were softened into 
ON. \_Where or when did they exist ?] Such formations are common in 
the Teutonic dialects, and perfectly agreeable to the established analogies 
of the language, being similar to the English verbal nouns which end in 
ingr 

But I Avill not tire the reader with more of these absurdities. 
Considerable learning is indeed brought forward in the work, 
to which may be applied a maxim for which I have been ac- 
customed to feel an hereditary respect : " The more learning 

^ Li vol. ii. p. 10, he derives the A.-Sax. adverbs in unga, inja, from 
tlie present participle ! when no participle in ng existed. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. 11 

any nian hath, the more need he hath of a correct and cautious 
judgment to use it well_, otherwise his learning will only render 
him the more capable of deceiving himself and others/^ ^ 

I shall conclude this note by presenting the reader with one 
more empty speculation on the subject of it.^ This is from 
a work which the ingenious author, Mr. Fearn, has named 

^ Preface to Taylor's Hebrew Concordance, vol. ii. — Dr. Jortin relates 
the following : — " Somebody said to a learned simpleton, The Lord 
double your learning, and then — you will be twice the fool that you 
are now." — Tracts, ii. 533. 

Dr. Murray's wonderful discoveries are received with great faith by 
Mr. Feam. His system, moreover, is transcribed into Cyclopaedias, and 
a Grammar founded upon it has been published in Scotland, where pro- 
posals were circulated for erecting a monument in honour of him. 

^ In the present edition, I have to add to these vague speculations 
of Dr. Murray and Mr. Fearn, some which have appeared in Mr. Eich- 
ardson's new Dictionary, and which I cannot consider as of any greater 
value. After informing us, in p. 431 of his Preliminary Essay, that our 
Present Participle was formerly written ande, ende, &c., and that an is 
the infinitive termination, as lup-an, Lov-an ; he asserts, but without 
offering any proof, that " Bd adjoined constitutes our simple verb ad- 
jective, Lovan-ed, lov-ande. Lovm^, as it has long been written," he 
adds, "is composed of the same infinitive Lov-an, ig, of equivalent 
meaning, having been affixed instead of ed;" [Lov-en-ig ;] and the e 
having, as in the former case, been "transposed and finally dropt, e?i-ig 
has become in-c/e, ing.^^ And, at p. 64, he designates Ing " a compound 

termination, in-ig, having the meaning of en (which, at p. 65, he 

tells us is " one'") augmented by y " [15]. It forms, he says, " the pre- 
sent participle of verbs ; we have also abundance of nouns in this ter- 
mination." Now all this, which is not proposed as a conjecture, but 
laid down absolutely, is not only entirely unsupported by evidence, but 
requires us to shut our eyes to the indisputable fact that ing is found 
coexisting with ende, though serving a different purpose, for at least 
six centuries before it began gradually, and only in the English language, 
to supplant it. ^^ Ling,''^ he says elsewhere, "may be the same syllable 
with I prefixed, I being itself corrupted from die, a deal or division ! " 

The zeal which has carried Mr. Eichardson through so considerable 
an undertaking as his Dictionary is much to be commended ; and the 
large collection of examples which his industry has brought together, 
although most injudiciously arranged, (Quarterly Eeview, vol. Ii. p. 172,) 
must be serviceable to philologists and to future lexicographers ; but 
it is to be regretted that he has been very unsuccessful in making use 
of the store of materials wdiicli he has amassed. This may in part be 
attributed to the erroneous view which he appears to have taken of 
the proper object of a Dictionary, which should be, to give faithfully 
the actual meanings of the words of our language; or the senses in 
which tliey are or have been in use, and not such as may suit a pre- 
conceived hypothesis or fancied etymology, thus leading those who may 



lii ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

Anti-Tooke ; and whicli_, as coming from a declared opponent, 

should receive some notice here. 

"I am (2 coming, — means, I exist in space — I 07i-ing {pne-ing) com- 
ing: In whicli instance, as in every other, the pronoun, (or nomi,) 

have to consult it into difficulty and error. Of Johnson's Dictionary 
Mr. Eichardson says " It is needless, and it would be invidious, to ac- 
cumulate especial instances of failure ; — the whole is a failure : " and 
he describes it as " a collection of usages from English authors, ex- 
plained to suit the quotations." It would have been well if Mr. 
Eichardson had given such " explanations as suited the quotations," 
and were in accordance with usage ; his sweeping censure would not 
then have been more applicable to his own work than to Johnson's, 
the design of Avhich is to give actual and not imputed meanings. After 
this utter condemnation of his celebrated predecessor, Mr. Eichard- 
son adds, that " no author is known to have undertaken the com- 
position of a new work, nor even to have engaged in the less hono ar- 
able, but still arduous and even praiseworthy enterprise of remoulding 
and reforming the old." His contempt for Mr. Todd's labours he had 
long ago expressed in his Illustrations : and does he consider as beneath 
his notice, or can he have been ignorant of the existence of Dr. Web- 
ster's Dictionary, a work unquestionably much superior to his own, and 
indeed to every English Dictionary that has yet appeared ? in which, 
whilst abundance of valuable etymological information is supplied, fide- 
lity and accuracy in recording the meanings according to actual usage 
is not sacrificed in order to accommodate them to a preconceived system 
or to etymological conjecture. 

As the basis of the theory which it seems to be the object of Mr. 
Eichardson's Dictionary to uphold, and which is to be found in his 
Preliminary Essay, he announces " with no assumption of unfelt diffi.- 
dence " the following axioms. That all men, in all ages having had the 
same organs of speech and sense of hearing, every distinct articulate 
sound had a distinct meaning ; that among all people having written lan- 
guage, each sound has a corresponding literal sign ; and that " each let- 
ter was the sign of a separate distinct meaning, — of a word previously 
familiar in speech," p. 5. His principles must, he indeed informs us, 
p. 36, " be considered as exoteric doctrines intended only for the scho- 
lar " (' esoteric ' he must be supposed to mean : but in the Dictionary 
exoteric is mixed up with exotic). Whether the philological student 
will be aided or misled by viewing the subject through such a medium 
I shall not discuss ; but with regard to those who have to consult a 
dictionary for the real meaning of words, foreigners for instance, strange 
indeed will be the perplexities into which some of Mr. Eichardson's 
explanations must lead them. — The safe application of " the great first 
principle " upon which he states that he has proceeded in the explana- 
tion of words, " that a word has one meaning, and one only, from 
which all usages must spring and be derived, — and that in the ety- 
mology of each word must be found this single intrinsic meaning," — 
involves in each case previous questions not oidy as to which is this 
single intrinsic meaning, but as to the unity of the word under con- 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. Hii 

which is the sign of the grammatical agent of the adjective action, is, or 
ought to be, repeated to form the nominative or agent of that action. 

" In the small variety of names for beginning actions which thus ap- 
pears, there is perhaps not one that is more logical, although at the same 
time none more vulgar, or debased, than the phrases ' I am « coming,' 
' I am fl^ GOING.' Thus, when children or servants or other dilatory 
persons, are called upon to do any thing which they must commence 
forthwith, but which they have not yet begun, and proceed to do with 
hesitation or reluctance, the ordinary reply is, * I am 6^ coming ; ' — ' I 
am a going to do it.' Now it is agreed among etymologists that a 
means on, and on means One.^ Hence the real import of the phrase 
I am a coming is — I am on — (onning) — {pne-ing) — the Act of coming, 
— that is {figuratively, Wi.^ feignedly also,) I am making Myself One 
WITH THE Act of coming, — which amounts to feigning, ' I am comi><g 
This Moment.' 

" It is equally usual, likewise, to say. He is a fishing. He is a 
EIDI^'G, — He is a fighting; even during the continuation of either of 
these actions : in which case, it is plain, the expression is less figurative, 
OY feigned; because the agent is actually at the moment doing the action, 
although he cannot be liteeally One with it." — P. 345. 

Whatever the reader may make of all this^ I confess that^ of 
the various ways of treating the subject^ I mnst prefer the Ba- 
conian mode piirsned by Mr. Tooke.^ As in Physics_, so in 
Philology^ we shall attain truth by an accurate investigation 
of facts and phsenpmenaj and not by ingenious and too often 
absurd conjectures which are independent of, or opposed to, 
them. Reasonings on language not deduced from the real 

sideration ; lest what is taken for " a word " should really be two or 
more distinct words lurking under the appearance of one. And the in- 
dividuality or identity of a word consists neither in the sound, the spell- 
ing, nor the sense, — paradoxical though this may seem, for these all 
undergo modifications, — but in its historical continuity, with regard to 
which facts must be our guide. — According to Mr. Richardson, Tell and 
Till are " the same word," — to raise, the ground, or the voice : so, also, 
Love and Lift, to pick up : Fear and Fare, to run away.— Pre/", p. 49. 

^ Mr. Eearn here travels too fast for me to keep pace with him. 

^ We are told, however, by Dr. Murray, that if Mr. Tooke " had not 
been misled by some erroneous parts of Locke's philosophy, and the 
weaker materialism of some unintelligible modern opinions, he would 
have made a valuable accession to moral as well as grammatical inqui- 
ries." — Yol. ii. p. 342. Por such a writer to bring a charge of " unin- 
telligible opinions " is ludicrous enough. If Locke's philosophy, and 
what is here called Materialism, kept Mr. Tooke clear of such airy con- 
ceits as Dr. Murray's, that at least is something in their favour. See 
this subject very ably treated in "A Letter on the Immateriality of the 
Soul, in reply to Mr. Rennel," (Hunter, 1821,) ascribed to a clergyman 
of the Irish church ; also in Wallace's " Observations on Lord Brougham's 
Natural Theology," (Ridgway, 1835.). 



liv ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

history of words are of about the same value as speculations in 
astronomy or chemistry unsupported by an acquaintance with 
the phsenomena of nature.^ 

With facts, then, for our guides, we find that we need not 
have recourse to the remotest ages and to nondescript fictitious 
dialects in the investigation of the change of termination in our 
Present Participle and its relation to Verbals in i7ig ; nor to 
subtile speculations and extravagant assumptions : but that the 
field of inquiry may be limited to our own language, and nea,rly 
to the period of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries : — and I 
recommend those who have opportunity to note any instances 
prior to the age of Chaucer where a verbal in ing is used strictly 
and unequivocally as a Present Participle. 



I trust that these notes, and the few that are scat- 
tered through the work, will not be thought foreign 
to its design, whether they coincide with Mr. Tooke, 
or propose explanations differing from those which 
he has given. It is one of his great excellencies that 
he always places honestly and fully before the reader 
all the data from which his deductions are made ; so 
that even where he may he thought to err he is sure 
to he instructive. 

I have now only to acknowledge with thanks the 
advice and assistance which I have received in the 
preparation of this edition from my friends Sutton 
Sharpe, Esq., and Bichard Price, Esq., the able editor 
of Warton's History of English Poetry; and shall 
conclude with expressing a wish that the work in its 
present form may prove acceptable to such as are fond 
of the studies which it was designed to promote. 

Red Lion Com^, Meet-street, EICHAED TAYLOR. 

Sept. 29, 1829. 

^ " The wit and mind of man, if it work upon matter, which is the 
contemplation of the creatures of God, worketh according to tlie stuff, 
and is limited thereby : but if it work upon itself, as the spider worketli 
his web, then it is endless, and brings forth indeed cobwebs of learning, 
achnirable for the fineness of thread and work, but of no substance or 
profit." — Bacons Ado. of Learning. 



EHEA HTEPOENTA, 
PAET I. 



TO THE 

UNIVEESITY OP CAMBEIBGE 

One of her grateful Sons, — who always considers 
acts of voluntary justice towards himself as Eavours/ 
— dedicates this humhle offering. And particularly 
to her chief ornament for virtue and talent, the Reve- 
rend Doctor Beadon, Master of Jesus College. 



^ Notwithstanding the additional authority of Plato's despicable say- 
ing — Cum omnibus solvam quod cum omnibus debeo^ — the assertion of 
Machiavel, that — Nissuno confessera 7nai haver obligo con uno cJii non 
Voffenda ^ — and the repetition of it by Father Paul, that — Mai alcuno si 
pretende obligato a cJii Vhahbifatto giustitia ; stimandolo tenuto per se stesso 
difarla'^ — are not true. They are not true either with respect to nations 
or to individuals : for the experience of much injustice will cause the 
forbearance of injury to appear like kindness. 

^ Senec. de Benefic. lib. vi. ' Discor. lib. i. cap. xvi. 

* Opinione del Padre Era Paolo, in qual modo debba governarsi la 
Eepublica Yeneta per haver perpetuo dominio. 



Non ut laudemur, sed ut prosimus. 

Equidem sic prope ab adolescentia animatus fui, ut inania fnmse 
contemnam, veraque consecter bona. In qua cogitafcione ssepius de- 
fixus, facilius ab animo meo potui impetrare, ut (quamvis scirem sor- 
descere magis et magis studia Literarum, maximeque ea quae proprie 
artem Grammaticen spectant) nihilominus paulisper, non quidem se- 
ponerem, sed remissius tamen tractarem studia graviora ; iteruraque in 
manus suraerem veteres adolescentias labores, laboreque novo inter tot 
Curas divulgarem. — G. J. Yossius. 

Le grand objet de Tart etymologique n'est pas de rendre raison de 
I'origine de tons les mots sans exception, et j'ose dire que ce seroit un 
but assez frivole. Get art est principalement recommendable en ce qu'il 
fournit a la philosophic des materiaux et des observations pour elever 
le grand edifice de la theorie generale des Langues. — M. Le President de 
Brosses. 



EHEA HTEPOENTA 



OR, 



THE DIVERSIONS OF PURLBY 



INTRODUCTION. 



B. — The mystery is at last unravelled. I shall no more 
wonder now that you engross his company at Purley/ whilst 
his other friends can scarce get a sight of him. This^ you say, 
was President Bradshaw^s seat. That is the secret of his 
attachment to the place. You hold him by the best security, 
his political prejudices and enthusiasm. But do not let his 
veneration for the memory of the ancient possessor pass upon 
you for affection to the present. 

H. — Should you be altogether so severe upon my politics; 
when you reflect that^ merely for attempting to prevent the 
efi'usion of brother's blood and the final dismemberment of the 
empire, 1 stand the single legal victim during the contest, and 
the single instance of proscription after it? But I am well 
contented that my principles, which have made so many of your 
way of thinking angry, should only make you laugh. Such 
however as they are, they need not now to be defended by me : 
for they have stood the test of ages ; and they will keep their 
ground in the general commendation of the world, till men forget 
to love themselves; though, till then perhaps, they are not 
likely to be seen (nor credited if seen) in the practice of many 
individuals. 

^ The seat of William Tooke, Esq., near Croydon, Surrey. [The 
persons of the dialogue are, B. Dr. Beadon, afterwards Bishop , of 
Gloucester ; H, the author ; and T. William Tooke, Esq, — Edit.] 

B 



Z INTRODUCTION, 

But are you really forced to go above a hundred years back 
to account for my attachment to Purley ? Without considering 
the many strong public and private ties by which I am bound 
to its present possessor_, can you find nothing in the beautiful 
prospect from these windows? nothing in the entertainment 
every one receives in this house? nothing in the delightful rides 
and walks we have taken round it? nothing in the cheerful 
disposition and easy kindness of its owner, to make a rational 
man partial to this habitation ? 

T. — Sir, you are making him transgress our only standing 
rules. Politics and compliments are strangers here. We always 
put them off when we put on our boots ; and leave them behind 
us in their proper atmosphere, the smoke of London. 

B. — Is it possible ! Can either of you — ^Englishmen and 
patriots ! — abstain for four- and- twenty hours together from 
politics? You cannot be always on horseback, or at piquet. 
What, in the name of wonder, your favourite topic excluded, 
can be the subject of your so frequent conversations ? 

T. — You have a strange notion of us. But I assure you we 
find more difficulty to finish than to begin our conversations. 
As for our subjects, their variety cannot be remembered ; but I 
will tell you on what we v/ere discoursing yesterday when you 
came in ; and I believe you are the fittest person in the world 
to decide between us. He insists, contrary to my opinion, that 
all sorts of wisdom and useful knowledge may be obtained by 
a plain man of sense without what is commonly called Learn- 
ing. And when I took the easiest instance, as I thought, and 
the foundation of all other knowledge, (because it is the begin- 
ning of education, and that in which children are first em- 
ployed,) he declined the proof of his assertion in this instance, 
and maintained that I had chosen the most difficult : for he 
says that, though Grammar be usually amongst the first things 
taught, it is always one of the last understood. 

B. — I must confess I differ from Mr. H. concerning the 
difficulty of Grammar; if indeed what you have reported be 
really his opinion. But might he not possibly give you that 
answer to escape the discussion of a disagreeable dry subject, 
remote from the course of his studies and the objects of his 
inquiry and pursuit ? By his general expression of — what is com- 
monly called Learning — and his declared opinion of that, I can 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

pretty well guess what he thinks of grammatical learning in 
particular. I dare swear (though he will not perhaps pay me 
so indifferent a compliment) he does not in his mind allow us 
even the poor consolation which we find in Athenaeus — et, /jltj 
larpoL rjaav, — but concludeSj without a single exception^ ovBev 
T(ov rpajuL/JbarcKcov iMcoporepov} 

I must however entreat him to recollect,, (and at the same 
time whose authority it bearsj that — ^' Qui sapientise et lite- 
rarum divortium faciunt^ nunquam ad solidam sapientiam per- 
tingent. Qui vero alios etiam a literarum linguarumque studio 
absterrent, non antiquse sapientise sed novae stultitise doctores 
sunt habendi.^^ 

H, — Indeed I spoke my real sentiments. I think Grammar 
difficulty but T am very far from looking upon it as foolish : 
indeed so far, that I consider it as absolutely necessary in the 
search after philosophical truth ; which, if not the most useful 
perhaps, is at least the most pleasing employment of the human 
mind. And I think it no less necessary in the most important 
questions concerning religion and civil society. But since you 
say it is easy, tell me where it may be learned. 

B. — If your look and the tone of your voice were less serious, 
the extravagance of your compliment to grammar would incline 
me to suspect that you were taking your revenge, and ban- 
tering me in your turn by" an ironical encomium on my favour- 
ite study. But, if I am to suppose you in earnest, I answer, 
that our English grammar may be sufficiently and easily 
learned from the excellent Introduction of Doctor Lowth : or 
from the first (as well as the best) English grammar, given by 
Ben Jonson. 

H. — True, Sir. And that was my first slight answer to our 
friend^s instance. But his inquiry is of a much larger compass 
than you at present seem to imagine. He asks after the causes 
or reasons of Grammar :^ and for satisfaction in them I know 



^ Ov yap KUKcos tlvl rav eraipcov r}ficov eX^x^rj to, ei firj larpot rjaap, ovdev av 
r)v Tcav ypafifxaTCKcov ficoporepov. — Deipnosoph. lib. 15. 

^ " Duplex Grammatica ; alia civilis, alia philosophica. 

" Civilis, peritia est, non scientia : constat enim ex auctoritate usuque 
clarornm scriptorum. 

" Philosopliica, vero, ratione constat ; et hsec scientiam olet. 

" Grammatica civilis habet aetatem in qua viget, et illam amplectun- 

B 2 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

not where to send him ; for, I assure you, he has a trouble- 
some, inquisitive, scrupulous mind of his own, that will not 
take mere words in current payment. 

B.—l should think that difficulty easily removed. Dr. Lowth, 
in his Preface, has done it ready to your hands. " Those,'' he 
says, '' who would enter more deeply into this subject, will find 
it fully and accurately handled, with the greatest acuteness 
of investigation, perspicuity of explication, and elegance of 
method, in a treatise entitled Hermes, by James Harris, Esq., 
the most beautiful and perfect example of Analysis that has 
been exhibited since the days of Aristotle." 

T. — The recommendation no doubt is full, and the authority 
great ; but I cannot say that I have found the performance to 
correspond : nor can I boast of any acquisition from its perusal, 
except indeed of hard words and frivolous or unintelligible dis- 
tinctions. And I have learned from a most excellent authority, 
that ^' tout ce qui varie, tout ce qui se charge de termes dou- 
teux et envelopes, a toujours paru suspect ; et non seulement 
frauduleux, mais encore absolument faux : parcequ"il marque 
un embarras que la verite ne connoit point.'' ^ 

jB.— And you. Sir ? 

H. — I am really in the same situation. 

B. — Have you tried any other of our English authors on the 
subject ? 

H. — I believe all of them, for they are not numerous ; ^ but 
none with satisfaction. 



tur Grammatici ; dicunt enim sub Cicerone et Csesare adultam linguam, 
&c. At pMlosopMca non agnoscit setatem linguae, sed rationalitatem ; 
amplectiturque vocabula bona omnium temporum." — Qampanella. 

^ Bossuet des Variations des Eglises Protestantes. 

^ The authors who have written professedly on this subject, in any 
language, are not numerous. Caramuel, in the beginning of his Gram- 
matica Audax, says, — " Solus, ut puto, Scotus, et post eum Scaliger et 
Campanella (alios enim non vidi) Grammaticam speculativam evulga- 
runt; vias tamen omnino diversas ingressi. Multa mihi in Scaligero, 
et plura in Campanella displicuerunt ; et pauciora in Scoto, qui vix alibi 
subtilius scripsit quam cum de Grammaticis Modis Significandi." 

The reader of Caramuel (who, together with Campanella, may be 
found in the Bodleian Library) will not be disappointed in him; but 
most egregiously by him, if the smallest expectations of information are 
excited by the character which is here given of Scotus — whose De Modis 
Significandi should be entitled, not Grammatica Speculativa^ but — an 



INTRODUCTION. O 

B. — You must then give up one at least of your positions. 
For if, as you make it out. Grammar is so difficult that a know- 
ledge of it cannot be obtained by a man of sense from any 
authors in his own language, you must send him to what is 
commonly called Learning, to the Greek and Latin authors, for 
the attainment of it. So true, in this science at least, if not in 
all others, is that saying of Roger Ascham, that — " Even as a 
hawke fleeth not hie with one wing, even so a man reacheth not 
to excellency with one tongue.^' 

H. — On the contrary, I am rather confirmed by this instance 
in my first position. I acknowledge philosophical Grammar 

Exemplar of the subtle art of saving appearances, and of discoursing 
deeply and learnedly on a subject with which we are totally unacquainted. 
Quid enim subtilius vel magis tenue, quam quod nihil est ? 

Wilkins, part 3. chap. 1. of his Essay towards a Real Character, says, 
after Caramuel, — " The first of these (i. e,, philoso])hical, rational, uni- 
versal Grammar) hath been treated of but by few; which makes our 
learned Verulam put it among his Desiderata. I do not know any more 
that have purposely written of it, but Scotus in his Grammatica Specu- 
lativa, and Caramuel in his Grammatica Audax, and Campanella in his 
Grammatica Philosophica. (As for Scioppius his Grammar of this title, 
that doth wholly concern the Latin tongue.) Besides which, something 
hath been occasionally spoken of it by Scaliger in his book De Causis 
LingucB Latince, and by Vossius in his Aristarchiisr So far Wilkins : 
who, for what reason I know not, has omitted the Minerva of Sanctius ; 
though well deserving his notice, and the declared foundation of Sciop- 
pius. But he who should confine himself to these authors, and to those 
who, with Wilkins, have since that time written professedly on this 
subject, would fall very short of the assistance he might have, and the 
leading hints and foundations of reasoning which he might obtain, by 
reading even all the authors who have confined themselves to particular 
languages. 

The great Bacon put this subject amongst his Desiderata, not, as 
Wilkins says, because ''few had treated of it ; " but because none had 
given a satisfactory account of it. At the same time, Bacon, though 
evidently wide of the mark himself, yet conjectured best how this know- 
ledge might most probably be attained ; and pointed out the most pro- 
per materials for reflection to work upon. " Ilia demum (says he), ut 
arbitramur, foret nobilissima Grammaticse species, si quis in Unguis 
plurimis, tam eruditis quam vulgaribus, eximie doctus, de variis lingua- 
rum proprietatibus tractaret ; in quibus qussque exceliat, in quibus defi- 
ciat ostendens. Ita enim et linguse mutuo commercio locupletari pos- 
sint ; et fiet ex iis quse in singulis linguis pulchra sunt (tanquam Venus 
Apellis) orationis ipsius qusedam formosissima imago, et exemplar quod- 
dam insigne, ad sensus animi rite exprimendos." — De Augment. Sclent. 
lib. 6. cap. 1. 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

(to which only my suspected compliment was intended) to be 
a most necessary step towards wisdom and true knowledge. 
From the innumerable and inveterate mistakes which have been 
made concerning it by the wisest philosophers and most dili- 
gent inquirers of all ages^ and from the thick darkness in which 
they have hitherto left it, I imagine it to be one of the most 
difficult speculations. Yet, I suppose, a man of plain common 
sense may obtain it, if he will dig for it ; but I cannot think 
that what is commonly called Learning, is the mine in which 
it will be found. Truth, in my opinion, has been improperly 
imagined at the bottom of a well : it lies much nearer to the 
surface : though buried indeed at present under mountains 
of learned rubbish; in which there is nothing to admire but 
the amazing strength of those vast giants of literature who 
have been able thus to heap Pelion upon Ossa. This at pre- 
sent is only my opinion, which perhaps I have entertained too 
lightly. Since therefore the question has been started, I am 
pleased at this occasion of being confirmed or corrected by you ; 
whose application, opportunities, extensive reading, acknow- 
ledged abilities, and universal learning, enable you to inform us 
of all that the ancients have left or the moderns have written on 
the subject. 

B. — Oh ! Sir, your humble servant ! compliments, I per- 
ceive, are banished from Purley. But I shall not be at all en- 
ticed by them to take upon my shoulders a burthen which you 
seem desirous to shift off upon me. Besides, Sir, with all your 
caution, you have said too much now to expect it from me. It 
is too late to recall what has passed your lips : and if Mr. T. is 
of my sentiments, you shall not be permitted to explain your- 
self away. The satisfaction which he seeks after, you say is to 
be had ; and you tell us the mine where you think it is not to 
be found. Now I shall not easily be persuaded that you are so 
rash, and take up your opinions so lightly, as to advance or 
even to imagine this ; unless you had first searched that mine 
yourself, and formed a conjecture at least concerning the place 
where you suppose this knowledge is to be found. Instead 
therefore of making me display to Mr. T. my reading, which 
you have already declared insufficient for the purpose, is it not 
much more reasonable that you should communicate to us the 
result of your reflection ? 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

H, — With all my hearty if you cliuse it should be so^ and 
think you shall have patience to hear me through. I own I 
prefer instruction to correction, and had rather have been in- 
formed without the hazard of exposing myself; but if you make 
the one a condition of the other, I think it still worth my ac- 
ceptance ; and will not lose this opportunity of your judgment 
for a little shame. I acknowledge then that the subject is not 
intirely new to my thoughts : for, though languages themselves 
may be and usually are acquired without any regard to their 
principles, I very early found it, or thought I found it, impos- 
sible to make many steps in the search after truth and the 
nature of human understanding, of good and evil, of right and 
wrong, without well considering the nature of language, which 
appeared to me to be inseparably connected with them. I own 
therefore I long since formed to myself a kind of system, which 
seemed to me of singular use in the very small extent of my 
younger studies to keep my mind from confusion and the impo- 
sition of words. After too long an interval of idleness and 
pleasure, it was my chance to have occasion to apply to some 
of the modern languages; and, not being acquainted with any 
other more satisfactory, I tried my system with these, and tried 
it with success. I afterwards found it equally useful to me 
with some of the dead languages. Whilst I was thus amusing 
myself, the political struggle commenced ; for my share in which 
you so far justly banter me, as I do acknowledge that, both 
in the outset and the progress of it, I was guilty of two most 
egregious blunders ; by attributing a much greater portion of 
virtue to individuals, and of understanding to the generality, 
than any experience of mankind can justify. After another 
interval therefore (not of idleness and pleasure), I w^as again 
called by the questions of our friend Mr. T. (for yesterday is 
not the first time by many that he has mentioned it) to the 
consideration of this subject, I have hitherto declined attempt- 
ing to give him the satisfaction he required : for, though the 
notion I had of language had satisfied my own mind and an- 
swered my own purposes, I could not venture to detail to him 
my crude conceptions without having ever made the least in- 
quiry into the opinions of others. Besides, I did not at all 
suspect that my notions, if just, could be peculiar to myself: 
and I hoped to find some author who might give him a clearer. 



INTRODUCTION. 

fuller, and more methodical account than I could, free from 
those errors and omissions to which I must be liable. Having 
therefore some small intervals of leisure, and a great desire to 
givie him the best information ; I confess I have employed some 
part of that leisure in reading every thing I could easily and 
readily procure that has been suggested by others. 

1 am afraid I have already spoken with too much pre- 
sumption : But when I tell you that I differ from all those who 
with such infinite labour and erudition have gone before me on 
this subject; what apology 

B. — Oh ! make none. When men think modestly, they may 
be allowed to speak freely. Come — Where will you begin ? — 
Alpha — Go on. 

H. — Not with the organical part of language, I assure you. 
For, though in many respects it has been and is to this moment 
grossly mistaken, (and the mistakes might, with the help of 
some of the first principles of natural philosophy and anatomy, 
be easily corrected,) yet it is an inquiry more of curiosity than 
immediate usefulness. 

B. — You will begin then either with things or ideas : for it 
is impossible we should ever thoroughly understand the nature 
of the signs, unless we first properly consider and arrange the 
things signified. Whose system of philosophy will you build 
upon? 

H. — What you say is true. And yet I shall not begin there. 
Hermes, you know, put out the eyes of Argus : and I suspect 
that he has likewise blinded philosophy : and if I had not ima- 
gined so, I should never have cast away a thought upon this 
subject. If therefore Philosophy herself has been misled by 
Language, how shall she teach us to detect his tricks ? 

B. — Begin then as you please. Only begin. 



EHEA nXEPOENTA, &c. 

PAET !• 

CHAPTER I. 

or THE DIVISION OR DISTRIBUTION OF LANGUAGE. 

H. — The purpose of Language is to communicate our 
thoughts 

B. — You do not mention this_, I hope, as something new_, or 
wherein you differ from others ? 

H. — You are too hasty with me. No. But I mention it as 
that principle_, which^ being kept singly in contemplation^ has 
misled all those who have reasoned on this subject. 

B. — Is it not true, then ? 

H. — I think it is. And that on which the whole matter 
rests. 

B. — And yet the confining themselves to this true principle 
upon which the whole matter rests, has misled them ! 

H. — Indeed I think so. 

B. — This is curious ! 

H. — Yet I hope to convince you of it. For thus they rea- 
soned Words are the signs of things. There must there- 
fore be as many sorts of words, or parts of speech, as there are 
sorts of things} The earliest inquirers into language pro- 
ceeded then to settle how many sorts there were of things ; and 
from thence how many sorts of words, or parts of speech. 
Whilst this method of search strictly prevailed, the parts of 



^ " Dictio revum iiota : pro rerum spccicbus partes quotque suas sor- 
tieliir." — /. C. Scaliycr de Ckiims L. L. 



10 OF THE DIVISION OR [PART I. 

speech were very few in number : but two. At most three, or 
four. 

All things, said they, must have names.^ But there are two 
sorts of things : 

1. Res qu(B permanent. 

2. Res qu(B fluunt. 

There must therefore be two sorts of words or parts of 
speech: viz. — 

1. Not (B rerum quce permanent. 

2. Notce rerum qucs fluunt. 

Well ; but surely there are words which are neither not(B 
rerum permanentium, nor yet notae rerum fluentium-. What will 
you do with them ? — We cannot tell : we can find but these two 
sorts in rerum natura : call therefore those other words, if you 
will^ for the present, particles,^ or inferior parts of speech, till we 
can find out what they are. Or, as we see they are constantly 
interspersed between nouns and verbs, and seem therefore in a 
manner to hold our speech together, suppose you call them 
conjunctions or connectives.^ 

This seems to have been the utmost progress that philo- 
sophical Grammar had made till about the time of Aristotle, 
when a fourth part of speech was added, — the definitivej or 
ai'ticle. 



^ From this moment Grammar quits tlie dayhght ; and plmiges into 
an abyss of utter darkness. 

^ A good convenient name for all the words wliich we do not under- 
stand ; for, as the denomination means nothing in particular, and con- 
tains no description, it will equally suit any short word we may please 
to refer thither. There has latterly been much dispute amongst Gram- 
marians concerning the use of this word, particle, in the division and 
distribution of speech : particularly by Girard, Dangeau, the authors of 
the Enci/dopedie, &c. In which it is singular that they should all be 
right in their arguments against the use made of it by others ; and all 
wrong in the use which each of them would make of it himself. Dr. 
S. Johnson adopts N. Bailey's definition of a particle — " a word un- 
varied by inflection." And Locke defines particles to be — " the words 
whereby the mind signifies what connection it gives to the several 
afHrmations and negations that it unites in one continued reasoning or 
narration." 

* The Latin Grammarians amuse themselves with debating whether 
^vvbeafxos should be translated Convinctio or Coujtoictio. Tlic l)an<^s and 
the Dutch seem to have taken dilfcrcnt sides of llie (|UCstion : for the 
Danish language terms it Bindeord, and the Dutch Koppelicoord. 



CH. I.] DISTRIBUTION OF LANGUAGE. 11 

Here concluded the search after the different sorts of words, 
or parts of speech_, from the difference of things : for none other 
apparently rational, acknowledged, or accepted difference has 
been suggested. 

According to this system, it was necessary that all sorts of 
words should belong to one of these four classes. For words 
being the signs of things, their sorts must necessarily follow the 
sorts of the things signified. And there being no more than 
four differences of things, there could be but four parts of 
speech. The difficulty and controversy now was, to determine 
to which of these four classes each word belonged. In the 
attempting of which, succeeding Grammarians could neither 
satisfy themselves nor others : for they soon discovered some 
words so stubborn, that no sophistry nor violence could by any 
means reduce them to any one of these classes. However, by 
this attempt and dispute they became better acquainted with the 
differences of words, though they could not account for them ; 
and they found the old system deficient, though they knew not 
how to supply its defects. They seem therefore to have re- 
versed the method of proceeding from things to signs, pursued 
by the philosophers ; and, still allowing the principle, {viz., that 
there must be as many sorts of words as of things,) they tra- 
velled backwards, and sought for the things from the signs : 
adopting the converse of the principle ; namely, that there must 
be as many differences of things as of signs. Misled therefore 
by the useful contrivances of language, they supposed many 
imaginary differences of things : and thus added greatly to the 
number of parts of speech, and in consequence to the errors of 
philosophy. 

Add to this, that the greater and more laborious part of 
Grammarians (to whose genius it is always more obvious to re- 
mark a multitude of effects than to trace out one cause) con- 
fined themselves merely to notice the differences observable in 
words, without any regard to the things signified. 

From this time the number of parts of speech has been 
variously reckoned : you will find different Grammarians con- 
tending for more than thirty. But most of those who admitted 
the fewest, acknowledged eight. This was long a favourite 
number ; and has been kept to by many who yet did not include 
the same parts to make up that number. For those who re- 



12 OF THE DIVISION OR [PART I. 

jected the article reckoned eight: and those who did not allow 
the interjection still reckoned eight. But what sort of diflPerence 
in words should entitle them to hold a separate rank by them- 
selves, has not to this moment been settled. 

B. — You seem to forget,, that it is some time since words have 
been no longer allowed to be the signs of things. Modern 
Grammarians acknowledge them to be (as indeed Aristotle called 
them, (Tv/ub^dXa TraOrjaarcov) the signs of ideas : at the same time 
denying the other assertion of Aristotle, that ideas are the like- 
nesses of things} And this has made a great alteration in the 
manner of accounting for the differences of words. 

H. — That has not much mended the matter. No doubt this 
alteration approached so far nearer to the truth ; but the nature 
of Language has not been much better understood by it. For 
Grammarians have since pursued just the same method with 
mind J as had before been done with things. The different opera- 
tions of the mind are to account now for what the different 
things were to account before : and when they are not found 
sufficiently numerous for the purpose, it is only supposing an 
imaginary operation or two, and the difficulties are for the time 
shuffled over. So that the very same game has been played over 
again with ideas, which was before played with things. No 
satisfaction, no agreement has been obtained. But all has been 
dispute, diversity, and darkness. Insomuch that many of the 
most learned and judicious Grammarians, disgusted with absur- 
dity and contradictions, have prudently contented themselves 
with remarking the differences of words, and have left the causes 
of language to shift for themselves. 

B. — That the methods of accounting for Language remain to 
this day various, uncertain, and unsatisfactory, cannot be denied. 
But you have said nothing yet to clear up the paradox you set 
out with ; nor a single word to unfold to us by what means you 
suppose Hermes has blinded Philosophy. 

H. — I imagine that it is, in some measure, with the vehicle 
of our thoughts as with the vehicles for our bodies. Necessity 
produced both. The first carriage for men was no doubt in- 
vented to transport the bodies of those who from infirmity, or 



^ EoTt fiev ovp ra ev Ttj cfxopji rav ev t>) "^vxU 7nidt]ixaT(OP avfj-^oXa — /cat u)i/ 
TavTU 6ixoi<t>ixaTa, irpayfiaTa. — Ariatot. de Inierprdal. 



CH. I.] DISTRIBUTION OF LANGUAGE. 13 

otherwise^ could not move themselves : But should any one, 
desirous of understanding the purpose and meaning of all the 
parts of our modern elegant carriages^ attempt to explain them 
upon this one principle alone, viz. — That they were necessary 

for conveyance ; he would find himself wofuUy puzzled to 

account for the wheels, the seats, the springs, the blinds, the 
glasses, the lining, &c. Not to mention the mere ornamental 
parts of gilding, varnish, &c. 

Abbreviations are the wheels of language, the wings of Mer- 
cury. And, though we might be dragged along without them, 
it would be with much difficulty, very heavily and tediously. 

There is nothing more admirable nor more useful than the 
invention of signs : at the same time there is nothing more pro- 
ductive of error when we neglect to observe their complication. 
Into what blunders, and consequently into what disputes and 
difficulties, might not the excellent art of Short-hand writing ^ 
(practised almost exclusively by the English) lead foreign phi- 
losophers ; who, not knowing that we had any other alphabet, 
should suppose each mark to be the sign of a single sound ! If 
they were very laborious a^nd very learned indeed, it is likely 
they would write as many volumes on the subject, and with as 
much bitterness against each other, as Grammarians have done 
from the same sort of mistake concerning Language : until per- 
haps it should be suggested to them, that there may be not only 

^ " The art of Short-hand is, in its kind, an ingenious device, and of 
considerable usefulness, applicable to any language, much wondered at 
by travellers that have seen the experience of it in England : and yet, 
though it be above threescore years since it was first invented, it is not 
to this day (for aught I can learn) brought into common practice in any 
other nation." — Wilkins, Upisi. Dedicatory. Essay towards a Real 
Character. 

" Short-hand, an art, as I have been told, known only in England." 
— Locke on Education. 

In the Courier de VEkirojpe, No. 41. November 20, 1787, is the fol- 
lowing article : 

" Le Sieur Coulon de Thevenot a eu I'honneur de presenter au roi sa 
methode d'ecrii-e aussi vite que Ton parle, approuvee par TA-cademie 
Hoyale des Sciences, et dont Sa Majeste a daigne accepter la dedicace. 
On sait que les Anglois sont depuis tres-long temps en possession d'une 
pareiUe methode adaptee a leur langage, et qu'elle leur est devenue ex- 
tremement commode et utile pour recueillir avec beaucoup de precision 
les discours publics : la methode du Sieur Coulon doit done etre tres- 
avantageux a la langue Fran^oise." 



14 OF THE DIVISION OR [PART I. 

signs of sounds ; but again^ for the sake of abbreviation, signs 
of those signs, one under another in a continued progression. 

B. — I think I begin to comprehend you. You mean to say- 
that the errors of Grammarians have arisen from supposing all 
words to be immediately either the signs of things or the signs 
of ideas ; whereas in fact many words are merely abbreviations 
employed for despatch, and are the signs of other words. And 
that these are the artificial wings of Mercury, by means of which 
the Argus eyes of philosophy have been cheated. 

H. — It is my meaning. 

B. — Well. We can only judge of your opinion after we 
have heard how you maintain it. Proceed, and strip him of 
his wings. They seem easy enough to be taken off: for it 
strikes me now, after what you have said, that they are indeed 
put on in a peculiar manner, and do not, like those of other 
winged deities, make a part of his body. You have only to 
loose the strings from his feet, and take off his cap. Come — 
Let us see what sort of figure he will make without them. 

H. — The first aim of Language was to communicate our 
thoughts; the second to do it with dispatch. (I mean intirely 
to disregard whatever additions or alterations have been made 
for the sake of beauty, or ornament, ease, gracefulness, or plea- 
sure.) The difficulties and disputes concerning Language have 
arisen almost intirely from neglecting the consideration of the 
latter purpose of speech : which, though subordinate to the for- 
mer, is almost as necessary in the commerce of mankind, and 
has a much greater share in accounting for the different sorts 
of words.^ Words have been called winged; and they well 
deserve that name, when their abbreviations are compared with 
the progress which speech could make without these inven- 

•' M. Le President de Brosses, in his excellent treatise Be la Formation 
mechaniqne des Langues, torn. 2. says — *' On ne parle que pour etre en- 
tendu. Le plus grand avantage d'une langue est d'etre claire. Tous 
les procedes de Grammaire ne devroient aller qu'a ce but." And again 
— " Le vulgaire et les pliilosophes n'ont d'autre but en parlant que de 
s'expliquer clairement." Art. 160. Pour le vulgau-e, he should have 
added — et promptement. And indeed he is afterwards well aware of 
this: for Art. 173, he says, " L'esprit humain veut aller vite dans son 
operation ; plus empresse de s'exprimer promptement, que curieux de 
s'exprimer avec une justesse exacte et reflechie. S'il n'a pas I'instru- 
ment qu'il faudroit employer, il se sert de celui qu'il a tout prct." 



CH. I.] DISTRIBUTION OF LANGUAGE. 15 

tions ; but, compared with the rapidity of thought, they have 
not the smallest claim to that title. Philosophers have calcu- 
lated the difference of velocity between sound and light : but 
who will attempt to calculate the difference between speech and 
thought ! What wonder then that the invention of all ages 
should have been upon the stretch to add such wings to their 
conversation as might enable it, if possible, to keep pace in 
some measure with their minds. — Hence chiefly the variety of 
words. 

Abbi'eviations are employed in language three ways : 

1. In terms. 

2. In sorts of words. 

3. In construction. 

Mr. Locke's Essay is the best guide to the first ; and num- 
berless are the authors who have given particular explanations 
of the last. The second only I take for my province at present ; 
because I believe it has hitherto escaped the proper notice of all. 



CHAPTER II. 



SOME CONSIDERATION OF MR. LOCKE S ESSAY. 

B. — I CANNOT recollect one word of Mr. Locke's that corre- 
sponds at all with any thing that you have said. The third 
Book of his Essay is indeed expressly written — " On the Na- 
ture, Use, and Signification of Language'^ But there is no- 
thing in it concerning abbreviations. 

H. — I consider the whole of Mr. Locke's Essay as a philo- 
sophical account of the first sort of abbreviations in Language. 

B. — Whatever you may think of it, it is certain, not only 
from the title, but from his own declaration, that Mr. Locke did 
not intend or consider it as such : for he says — " When I first 
began this discourse of the Understanding, and a good while 
after, I had not the least thought that any consideration of 
vjords was at all necessary to it." ^ 



^ Perhaps it was for mankind a lucky mistake (for it was a mistake) 
which Mr. Locke made when he called his book, An Essay on Human 
Jlnderdandhuj . For some part of the inestimable benefit of that book 



16 SOME CONSIDERATION [PART I. 

H. — True. And it is very strange he should so have ima- 
gined.^ But what immediately follows? — '^'^But when, having 
passed over the original and composition of our^ ideas, I began 
to examine the extent and certainty of our knowledge ; I found 
it had so near a connexion with words, that unless their force 
and manner of signification were first well observed, there could 
be very little said clearly and pertinently concerning knowledge : 
which being conversant about truth, had constantly to do 
with propositions. And though it terminated in things, yet 
it was for the most part so much by the intervention of words, 
that they seemed scarce separable from our general knowledge.^^ 

And again, — "I am apt to imagine that, were the imper- 
fections of Language, as the instrument of knowledge, more 



has, merely on account of its title, reached to many thousands more 
than, I fear, it would have done, had he called it (what it is merely) 
A Grammatical Essay, or a Treatise on Words ^ or on Language. The 
human mind, or the human under standing , appears to be a grand and 
noble theme ; and all men, even the most insufficient, conceive that to be 
a proper object for their contemplation : whilst inquiries into the nature 
of Language (through which alone they can obtain any knowledge beyond 
the beasts) are fallen into such extreme disrepute and contempt, that even 
those who " neither have the accent of christian, pagan, or man," nor 
can speak so many words together with as much propriety as Balaam's 
ass did, do yet imagine words to be infinitely beneath the concern of their 
exalted understanding. 

•^ " Aristotelis profecto judicio Grammaticam non solum esse PJiilo- 
sophice partem, (id quod nemo sanus negat,) sed ne ab ejus quidem cog- 
nitione dissolvi posse intelligeremus." — /. C. ScaUger de Caiisis. Frafat. 

" And lastly," says Bacon, " let us consider the false appearances that 
are imposed upon us by words, which are framed and applied according 
to the conceit and capacities of the vulgar sort : and although we think 
we govern our words, and prescribe it well — loquendmii nt vidgus, sen- 
ilendum ut sapientes ;— yet certain it is, that words, as a Tartar's bow, 
do shoot back upon the understanding of the wisest, and mightily en- 
tangle and pervert the judgment. So as it is almost necessary in all 
controversies and disputations to imitate the wisdom of the mathemati- 
cians, in setting dov/n in the very beginning the definitions of our words 
and terms, that others may know how we accept and understand them, 
and whether they concur with us or no. For it cometh to pass, for 
want of this, that we are sure to end there where we ought to have 
begun, which is in questions and differences about words." — Of the 
Advancement of Learning. 

^ It may appear presumptuous, but it is necessary here to declare ray 
opinion, that Mr. Locke in his Essay never did advance one step beyond 
the origin of Ideas and the composition of Terms. 



CH. II.] OF MR. Locke's essay. 17 

thoroughly weighed^ a great many of the controversies that 
make such a noise in the world would of themselves cease ; and 
the way to knowledge, and perhaps peace too_, lie a great deal 
opener than it does.'' ^ 

So that, from these and a great many other passages through- 
out the Essay, you may perceive that the more he reflected and 
searched into the human understanding, the more he was con- 
vinced of the necessity of an attention to Language ; and of the 
inseparable connexion between words and knowledge. 

B. — Yes. And therefore he wrote the third Book of his 
Essay, on — ^^the Nature, Use, and Signification of Language.^' 
But you say, the whole of the Essay concerns Language; 
whereas the two first Books concern the Origin and Compo- 
sition of Ideas : and he expressly declares that it was not till 
after he had passed over them, that he thought any considera- 
tion of words was at all necessary. 

H. — If he had been aware of this sooner, that is, before he 
had treated of (what he calls) the origin and composition of 
Ideas; I think it would have made a great difference in his 
Essay. And therefore I said, Mr. Locke's Essay is the best 
Guide to the first sort of Abbreviations. 

B. — Perhaps you imagine that, if he had been aware that he 
was only writing concerning Language, he might have avoided 
treating of the origin of Ideas ; and so have escaped the quan- 
tity of abuse which has been unjustly poured upon him for his 
opinion on that subject. 

H. — No. I think he would have set out just as he did, 

^ "This design (says Wilkins) will likewise contribute much to the 
clearing of some of our modem differences in rehgion;" (and he might 
have added, in all other disputable subjects ; especially in matters of 
law and civil government-^ — "by unmasking many wild errors, that 
shelter themselves under the disguise of aifected phrases ; which, being 
philosophically unfolded, and rendered according to the genuine and 
natural importance of words, will appear to be inconsistencies and 
contradictions. And several of those pretended mysterious, profound 
notions, expressed in great swelling words, whereby some men set up 
for reputation, being this way examined will appear to be either non- 
sense, or very flat and jejune. And though it should be of no other 
use but this, yet were it in these days well worth a man's pains and 
study; considering the common mischief that is done, and the many 
impostures and cheats that are put upon men, under the disguise of 
aifected, insignificant phrases." — Mpid. Bedicat. 



18 SOME CONSIDERATION [PART I. 

with the origin of Ideas; the proper starting-post of a Gram- 
marian who is to treat of their signs. Nor is he singular in 
referring them all to the Senses, and ia beginning an account 
of Language in that manner.^ 

B. — What difference then do you imagine it would have 
made in Mr. Locke's Essay, if he had sooner been aware of the 
inseparable connexion between words and knowledge; or, in 
the language of Sir Hugh, in Shakespeare, that ''^the lips is 
parcel of the mind?^'^ 

^ "Nihil in intellectu quod non prius in sensu," is, as well as its con- 
verse, an ancient and well known position. 

" Sicut in speculo ea quae videatur non sunt, sed eoiTim species ; ita 
quae intelligimus, ea sunt re ipsa extra nos, eorumque species in nobis. 
Est enim quasi rerum speculum intellectus noster ; cui nisi per sensum 
reprcesententur res^ nihil scit ipse." — /. C. Scaliger de Causis L. L. cap. 
Ixvi. 

" I sensi," says Buonmattei, " in un certo modo potrebbon dirsi mi- 
nistri, nunzj, famigliari, o segretarj dello 'ntelletto. E accioche lo 
esempio ce ne faccia piu capaci, — Imaginiamci di vedere alcun principe, 
il qual se ne stia nella sua corte, nel suo palazzo. Non vede egli con 
gli occhi propj, ne ode co' propj orecchi quel che per lo stato si faccia : 
jna col tenere in diversi luoghi varj ministri che lo ragguagliano di cio 
che segue, viene a sapere intender per cotal relazione ogni cosa, e bene 
spesso molto piu minutamente e piu perfettamente degli stessi ministri : 
Perche quegli avendo semplicemente notizia di quel che avvenuto sia 
nella lor citta o provincia, rimangon di tutto '1 resto ignoranti, e di 
facile posson fin delle cose vedute ingannarsi. Dove il principe pub 
aver di tutto il seguito cognizione in un subito, che servendogli per 
riprova d' ogni particolar riferitogli, non lo lascia cosi facilmente ingan- 
nare. Cosi, dico, e 1' intelletto umano ; il quale essendo di tulte 1' altre 
potenze e signore e principe, se ne sta nella sua ordinaria residenza 
riposio, e non vede ne ode cosa che si faecia di fuori : Ma avendo cinque 
ministri che lo ragguaglian di quel che succede, uno nella region della 
vista, un altro nella giurisdizion dell' udito, quello nella provincia del 
gusto, questo ne' paesi dell' odorato, e quest' altro nel distretto del tatto, 
viene a sapere per mezzo del discorso ogni cosa in universale, tanto piu 
de' sensi perfettamente, quanto i sensi ciascuno intendendo nella sua 
pura potenza, non posson per tutte come lo 'ntelletto discorrere. E sic- 
come il principe, senza lasciarsi vedere o sentire, fa noto altrui la sua 
volonta per mezzo degli stessi ministri ; cosi ancora 1' Intelletto fa in- 
tendersi per via de' medesimi sensi." — Buonmattei, Tratt. 2. cap. 2. 

^ " Divers philosophers hold that the lips is parcel of the mind." — 
Merry Wives of Windsor , act 1. scene 4. 

Rowland Jones agrees with his countryman, Sir Hugh Evans, In his 
Orifjfin of Language and Nations, Preface, page 17, he says (after otiiers) 
— "I think that Language ought not to be considered as mere- arbitrary 



CH. II.] OP MR. LOCKERS ESSAY. 19 

H. — Much. And amongst many other things, I think he 
would not have talked of the composition oi ideas ; but would 
have seen that it was merely a contrivance of Language : and 
that the only composition was in the terms ; and consequently 
that it was as improper to speak of a complex idea, as it would 
be to call a constellation a complex star : And that they are not 
ideas, but merely terms, which are general and abstract. I 
think too that he would have seen the advantage of " thoroughly 
weighing ^^ not only (as he says) " the imperfections of Lan- 
guage/'' but its perfections also : For the perfections of Lan- 
guage, not properly understood, have been one of the chief 
causes of the imperfections of our philosophy. And indeed, 
from numberless passages throughout his Essay, Mr. Locke 
seems to me to have suspected something of this sort : and 
especially from what he hints in his last chapter; where, speak- 
ing of the doctrine of signs, he says, — "The consideration 
then of Ideas and Words, as the great instruments of know- 
ledge, makes no despicable part of their contemplation who 
would take a view of human knowledge in the whole extent 
of it. And perhaps, if they were distinctly weighed and duly 
considered, they would afford us another sort of Logick and 
Critick than what we have hitherto been acquainted with." 

B. — Do not you think that what you now advance will bear 
a dispute; and that some better arguments than your bare 
assertion are necessary to make us adopt your opinion ? 

H. — Yes. To many persons much more would be necessary ; 
but not to you. I only desire you to read the Essay over again 
with attention, and see whether all that its immortal author 
has justly concluded will not hold equally true and clear, if you 
substitute the composition, &c. of terms, wherever he has sup- 
posed a composition, &c. of ideas. And if that shall upon 
strict examination appear to you to be the case, you will need 

sounds; or any thing less than a part, at least, of that living soul which 
God is said to have breathed into man." This method of referring 
words immediately to God as their framer, is a short cut to escape in- 
quiry and explanation. It saves the philosopher much trouble ; but 
leaves mankind in great ignorance, and leads to great error.- — Non d'uj- 
nus vindice nodus. — God having furnished man with senses and with 
organs of articulation, as he has also with water, lime and sand ; it 
should seem no more necessary to form tlie words for man, than to 
temper the mortar. 

c 2 



20 SOME CONSIDERATION [PART I. 

no other argument against the composition of Ideas : It being 
exactly similar to that unanswerable one which Mr. Locke him- 
self declares to be sufficient against their being innate. For 
the supposition is unnecessary : Every purpose for which the 
composition of Ideas was imagined being more easily and natu- 
rally answered by the composition of Terms : whilst at the same 
time it does likewise clear up many difficulties in which the 
supposed composition of Ideas necessarily involves us. And, 
though this is the only argument I mean to use at present, 
(because I would not willingly digress too far, and it is not the 
necessary foundation for what I have undertaken,) yet I will 
venture to say, that it is an easy matter, upon Mr. Locke's own 
principles and a physical consideration of the Senses and the 
Mind, to prove the impossibility of the composition of Ideas. 

B. — Well. Since you do not intend to build any thing upon 
it, we may safely for the present suppose what you have ad- 
vanced ; and take it for granted that the greatest part of Mr. 
Lockers Essay, that is, all which relates to what he calls the 
composition, abstraction, complexity, generalization, relation, 
&c. of Ideas, does indeed merely concern Language. But, 
pray, let me ask you, if so, what has Mr. Locke done in the 
Third Book of his Essay, in which he professedly treats of the 
nature, use, and signification of Language ? 

H. — He has really done little else but enlarge upon what he 
had said before, when he thought he was treating only of Ideas : 
that is, he has continued to treat of the composition of Terms. 
For though, in the passage I have before quoted, he says, that 
*' unless the force and manner of signification of words are first 
well observed, there can be very little said clearly and perti- 
nently concerning knowledge ;'' — and though this is the de- 
clared reason of writing his Third Book concerning Language, 
as distinct from Ideas ; yet he continues to treat singly, as be- 
fore, concerning the Force^ of words, and has not advanced one 
syllable concerning their Manner of signification. 

The only Division Mr. Locke has made of words, is, into — 
Names of Ideas, and Particles. This division is not made regu- 
larly and formally, but is reserved to his seventh Chapter. And 



^ The Force of a word depends upon the number of Ideas of which 
that word is the si an. 



CH.-II.] OF MR. LOCKERS ESSAY. 21 

even tliere it is done in a very cautious^ doubting^ loose^ uncer- 
tain manner, very different from that incomparable author^s 
usual method of proceeding. For, though the general title of 
the seventh Chapter is — Of Particles ; — yet he seems to chuse 
to leave it uncertain whether he does or does not include Verbs 
in that title, and particularly what he calls '^ the Marks of the 
Mind's affirming or denying." And indeed he himself acknow- 
ledges, in a letter to Mr. Molyneux, that — " Some parts of that 
Third Book concerning Words, though the thoughts were easy 
and clear enough, yet cost him more pains to express than all 
the rest of his Essay ; and that therefore he should not much 
wonder if there were in some parts of it obscurity and doubtful- 
ness.^^ Now whenever any man finds this difficulty to express 
himself, in a language with which he is well acquainted, let him 
be persuaded that his thoughts are not clear enough : for, as 
Swift (I think) has somewhere observed, "When the water is 
clear you will easily see to the bottom. ^^ 

The whole of this vague Chapter — Of Particles— {which. 
should have contained an account of every thing but Nouns) is 
comprised in two pages and a half : and all the rest of the Third 
Book concerns only, as before, the Force of the names of Ideas. 

B. — How is this to be accounted for ? Do you suppose he 
was unacquainted with the opinions of Grammarians, or that he 
despised the subject ? 

H. — No : I am very sure of the contrary. For it is plain he 
did not despise the subject, since he repeatedly and strongly 
recommends it to others : and at every step throughout his 
Essay, I find the most evident marks of the journey he had 
himself taken through all their works. But it appears that he 
was by no means satisfied with what he found there concerning 
Particles : For he complains that " this part of Grammar has 
been as much neglected, as some others over-diligently culti- 
vated." And says, that " He who would show the right use of 
Particles, and what significancy and force they have," (that is, 
according to his own division, the right use, significancy, and 
force of ALL words except the names of Ideas,) " must take a 
Httle more pains, enter into his own thoughts, and observe 
nicely the several postures of his mind in discoursing." For 
these Particles, he says, — " are all marks of some action or inti- 
mation of the Mind ; and therefore, to understand them rightly, 



23 OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. PART I. 

the several views_, postures, stands, turns, limitations and ex- 
ceptions, and several other thoughts of the Mind, for which we 
have either none or very deficient names, are diligently to be 
studied. Of these there are a great variety, much exceeding 
the number of Particles.^^ Por himself, he declines the task, 
however necessary and neglected .by all others : and that for 
no better reason than — " I intend not here a full explication 
of this sort of signs." And yet he was (as he professed and 
thought) writing on the human Understanding ; and therefore 
should not surely have left mankind still in the same darkness 
in which he found them, concerning these hitherto unnamed 
and (but by himself) undiscovered operations of the Mind. 

In short, this seventh Chapter is, to me, a full confession and 
proof that he had not settled his own opinion concerning the 
manner of signification of Words : that it still remained (though 
he did not chuse to have it so understood) a Desideratum with 
him, as it did with our great Bacon before him : and therefore 
that he would not decide any thing about it ; but confined him- 
self to the prosecution of his original inquiry concerning the 
first sort of Abbreviations, which is by far the most important to 
knowledge, and which he supposed to belong to Ideas. 

But though he declined the subject, he evidently leaned 
towards the opinion of Aristotle, Scaliger, and Mess, de Port 
Boyal : and therefore, without having sufficiently examined 
their position, he too hastily adopted their notion concerning 
the pretended Copula — " Is, and Is not,'' He supposed, with 
them, that affirming and denying were operations of the Mind ; 
and referred all the other sorts of Words to the same source. 
Though, if the different sorts of Words had been (as he was 
willing to believe) to be accounted for by the difierent opera- 
tions of the Mind, it was almost impossible they should have 
escaped the penetrating eyes of Mr. Locke. 



CHAPTER III. 

OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 



B. — You said some time ago, very truly, that the number of 
Parts of Speech was variously reckoned : and that it has not to 



CH. III.] OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 23 

this moment been settled, what sort of difference in words 
should entitle them to hold a separate rank by themselves. 

By what you have since advanced_, this matter seems to be 
ten times more unsettled than it was before : for you have dis- 
carded the difiPerences of Things, and the differences of Ideas, 
and the different operations of the Mind, as guides to a division 
of Language. Now I cannot for my life imagine any other 
principle that you have left to conduct us to the Parts of 
Speech. 

H. — I thought I had laid down in the beginning, the prin- 
ciples upon which we were to proceed in our inquiry into the 
manner of signification of words. 

B. — Which do you mean ? 

H. — The same which Mr. Locke employs in his inquiry into 
the Force of words : viz. — The two great purposes of speech. 

jB. — And to what distribution do they lead you ? 

H. — 1. To words necessary for the communication of our 
Thoughts. And, 

2. To Abbreviations, employed for the sake of dispatch. 

B. — How many of each do you reckon? And which are 
they? 

H. — In what particular language do you mean ? Por, if you 
do not confine your question, you might as reasonably expect 
me (according to the fable) ^' to make a coat to fit the moon in 
all her changes." 

B. — Why ? Are they not the same in all languages ? 

H. — Those necessary to the communication of our thoughts 
are. 

B. — ^And are not the others also ? 

H, — No. Very different. 

B. — I thought we were talking of Universal Grammar. 

H, — I mean so too. But I cannot answer the whole of your 
question, unless you confine it to some particular language with 
which I am acquainted. However, that need not disturb you : 
for you will find afterwards that the principles will apply 
universally. 

B. — Well. For the present then confine yourself to the 
necessary Parts : and exemplify in the English. 

H. — In English, and in all Languages, there are only two 



24 OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. [PART I. 

sorts of words which are necessary for the communication of 
our thoughts. 

B. — And they are ? 

H, — 1. Noun, and 
2. Verb. 

-S. — These are the common names, and I suppose you use 
them according to the common acceptation. 

H. — I should not otherwise have chosen them, but because 
they are commonly employed ; and it would not be easy to dis- 
possess them of their prescriptive title : besides, without doing 
any mischief, it saves time in our discourse. And I use them 
according to their common acceptation. 

B. — But you have not all this while informed me how many 
,Parts of Speech you mean to lay down. 

H. — That shall be as you please. Either Two, or Twenty, 
or more. In the strict sense of the term, no doubt both the 
necessary Words and the Abbreviations are all of them Parts 
of Speech ; because they are all useful in Language, and each 
has a different manner of signification. But I think it of great 
consequence both to knowledge and to Languages, to keep the 
words employed for the different purposes of speech as distinct 
as possible. And therefore I am inclined to allow that rank 
only to the necessary words :^ and to include all the others 
(which are not necessary to speech, but merely substitutes of 
the first sort) under the title of Abbreviations. 

B. — Merely Substitutes ! You do not mean that you can 
discourse as well without as with them ? 

H, — Not as well. A sledge cannot be drawn along as 
smoothly, and easily, and swiftly as a carriage with wheels ; 
but it may be dragged. 

B. — Do you mean then that, without using any other sort 
of word whatever, and merely by the means of the Noun and 
Verb alone, you can relate or communicate anything that I 
can relate or communicate with the help of all the others ? 

H. — Yes. It is the great proof of all I have advanced. 
And, upon trial, you will find that you may do the same. But, 

^ " Ees iieccssnrias philosoplius primo loco statuit : accessorias aiitem 
ct vicarias, mox."— */. C. Scaliyer de Caiisis L. L. cap. 110. 



CH. III.] OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 25 

after the long habit and familiar use of Abbreviations, your first 
attempts to do without them will seem very awkward to you ; and 
you will stumble as often as a horse_, long used to be shod_, that 
has newly cast his shoes. Though indeed (even with those who 
have not the habit to struggle against) without A breviations, 
Language can get on but lamely : and therefore they have been 
introduced, in different plenty, and more or less happily, in all 
Languages. And upon these two points — Abbreviation of Terms, 
and Abbreviation in the manner of signification of words — 
depends the respective excellence of every Language. All their 
other comparative advantages are trifling. 

B. — I like your method of proof very well ; and will certainly 
put it to the trial. But before I can do that properly, you must 
explain your Abbreviations ; that I may know what they stand 
for, and what words to put in their room. 

H. — Would you have me then pass over the two necessary 
Parts of Speech; and proceed immediately to their Abbre- 
viations? 

B. — If you will. For I suppose you agree with the common 
opinion, concerning the words which you have distinguished as 
necessary to the communication of our thoughts. Those you 
call necessary, I suppose you allow to be the signs of different 
sorts of Ideas, or of different operations of the mind. 

H. — Indeed I do not. The business of the mind, as far as it 
concerns Language, appears to me to be very simple. It extends 
no further than to receive impressions, that is, to have Sensations 
or Feelings. What are called its operations, are merely the 
operations of Language. A consideration of Ideas, or of the 
Mind, or of Things (relative to the Parts of Speech), will lead us 
no further than to Nouns : i. e., the signs of those impressions, 
or names of ideas. The other Part of Speech, the Verb, must 
be accounted for from the necessary use of it in communication. 
It is in fact the communication itself: and therefore well 
denominated 'Pr)fjLa, Dictum. For the Verb is quod loquimur ;^ 
the Noun, de quo. 

B. — Let us proceed then regularly ; and hear what you have 
to say on each of your two necessary Parts of Speech. 

^ " Alterum est quod loquimur ; alterum de quo loquimur." — 
Quindll. lib. 1. caj). 4. 



26 OF THE NOUN. [PART I. 



CHAPTER IV. 

OF THE NOUN. 

H. — Of the first Part of Speech — the Noun — it being the 
best understoodj and therefore the most spoken of by others^ I 
shall need at present to say little more than that it is the simple 
or complex, the particular or general sign or name of one or more 
Ideas. 

I shall only remind you, that at this stage of our inquiry 
concerning Language^ comes in most properly the considera- 
tion of the force of Terms : which is the whole business of 
Mr. Lockers Essay ; to which I refer you. And I imagine that 
Mr. Lockers intention of confining himself to the consideration 
of the Mind only_, was the reason that he went no further 
than to the Force of Terms ; and did not meddle with their 
Manner of signification^ to which the Mind alone could never 
lead him. 

B. — Do you say nothing of the Declension, Number, Case and 
Gender of Nouns ? 

H. — At present nothing. There is no pains-worthy difficulty 
nor dispute about them. 

B. — Surely there is about the Gender. And Mr. Harris 
particularly has thought it worth his while to treat at large of 
what others have slightly hinted concerning it : ^ and has sup- 
ported his reasoning by a long list of poetical authorities. 
What think you of that part of his book ? 

H. — That, with the rest of it, he had much better have let 
it alone. And as for his poetical authorities; the Muses (as 
I have heard Mrs. Peachum say of her own sex in cases of 
murder) are bitter bad judges in matters of philosophy. 

^ " Pythagorici sexum in cunctis agnoscunt, &c. Agens, Mas ; I*aiieus, 
Pcemina. Quapropter Beus dicuiit masculine ; Terra, foeminine : et Ignis, 
masculine ; et Aqua, fceminine : quoniam in liis Actio, in istis Fa^sio 
relucebat." — Campanella. 

" In rebus inveniuntur duse proprietates generales, scilicet pro- 
prietas Agentis, et proprietas Fatientis. Genus est modus significandi 
nominis sumptus a proprietate activa vel passiva. Genus mascuHnum 
est modus significandi rem sub proprietate agentis : Genus foemininum 
est modus significandi rem sub proprietate patientis." — Scotus Gram. 
Spec. cap. 16. 



OF THE NOUN. 



27 



:h. IV.] 

Besides that Reason is an arrant Despot; who, in his own 
iominions, admits of no authority but his own. And Mr. 
Harris is particularly unfortunate in the very outset of that— 
" subtle kind of reasoning (as he calls it) which discerns even 
in things without sex, a distant analogy to that great natural 
distinction." For his very first instances— the sun and the 
j^^ooN— destroy the whole subtilty of this kind of reasoning.^ 
For Mr. Harris ought to have known, that in many Asiatic 
Languages, and in all the northern Languages of this part of the 
globe which we inhabit, and particularly in our Mother- 
iknguage the Anglo-Saxon (from which sun and moon are 
immediately derived to us), sun is Feminine, and moon is 
Masculine.^ So feminine is the Sun, ['' that fair hot wench in 
flame-colour'd taflfata," '] that our northern Mythology makes 
her the Wife of Tuisco. 

And if our English Poets, Shakespeare, Milton, &c. have, 
by a familiar Pros9pop~eia, made them of different genders; it 

_ ' ' '>4 

lit can only have been Mr. Harris's authority, and the ill-founded 
praises lavished on his performance, that could mislead Dr. Priestley, 

in his thirteenth lecture, hastily and without examination to say 

"Thus, for example, the suN having a stronger, and the moon a 
weaker influence over the world, and there bemg but two celestial 
bodies so remarkable; JU nations, I believe, that use genders, have 
ascribed to the Sun the gender of the Male, and to the Moon that of the 

Female.'' ^ . , , ^ ,. , 

In the Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, German, Dutch, Danish and Swedish, sun 
is feminine : In modern Eussian it is neuter. 

2 " Apud Saxones, Luna, Mona. Mona autem Germanis supenor- 
ibus Mon, alias Man; a Mon, alias Man, veterrimo ipsorum ^ege et 
Deo patrio, quem Tacitus meminit, et in Luna celebrabat.— Lx hoc 
Lunam masculino (ut Hebrcei) dicunt genere, Der Mon ;^ Dommamque 
ejus et Amasiam, e cujus aspectu alias languet, alias resipiscit, Bie t^on; 
quasi Jmnc Lunam, hanc Solem. Hinc et idolum Lunse viri fingebant 
specie; non, ut Verstegan opinatur, i^mm^ rSpelmans Gloss. 

Mona. . , ,. ^. .... 

"De generibus Nominum (quse per articulos, adjectiva, participia, 
et pronomina indicantur) hie nihil tradimus. Obiter tamen observet 
Lector, ut ut minuta res est, Solem (Sunna vel Sunne) m Anglo- 
Saxonica esse foeminini generis, et Lunam {Mona) esse masculmi. — 
fir fTi pIcp^ 

'" Quomodo item Sol est virile, Germanicum Sunn, fcemininmn. 
Dicunt enim Die Sunn, non Der Sunn. Unde et Solem Tuiscoms 
uxorem fuisse fabulantur." — G. J. Vossius. 

^ First part of Henry IF. 



28 OF THE NOUN. [PART 1. 

is only because,, from their classical reading, they adopted the 
southern not the northern mythology ; and followed the pattern 
of their Greek and Eoman masters. 

Figure apart, in our Language, the names of things without 
sex are also without gender.^ And this, not because our 
Reasoning or Understanding differs from theirs who gave 
them gender; (which must be the case, if the Mind or 
Reason was concerned in it,^) but because with us the rela- 
tion of words to each other is denoted by the place or by 
Prepositions; which denotation in their language usually 

^ " Sexus enira iion nisi in Animali, aut in iis quae Animalis naturam 
imitantur, ut arbores. Sed ab usu hoc factum est ; qui nunc mascu- 

linum sexum, nunc foemininum attribuisset. Proprium autem ge- 

nerum esse pati mutationem, satis patet ex genere incerto; ut etiam 
Armeutas dixerit Ennius, quoe nos Armenta.'" — /. C. Scaliger de Causis, 
cap. 79. 

" Norainum quoque genera mutantur, adeo ut privatim libros super liac 
re veteres confecerint. Alteram argumentum est ex iis quae Dulia sive 
Incerta vocant. Sic enim dictum est, Hie vel Hcsc Dies. Tertium 
testimonium est in quibusdam : nam Plautus Collum masculino dixit. 
Item Jiibar, Palumbem, atque alia, diversis quam nos generibus esse a 
priscis pronunciata." — Id. cap. 103. 

" Amour qui est masculin au singulier, est quelquefois feminin au 
^\m\e\: defolles amours. On dit au masculin tin ComtS, Tin Duclic ; 
et au feminin Tine Com.te pairie, Une Diiche pairie. On dit encore Be 
bonnes gens et JDes gens malheureiix. Par ou. vous voyez que le sub- 
stantif Gens est feminin, lorsqu'il est precede d'un adjectif ; et qu'il 
est masculin, lorsqu'il en est suivi." — UAhhe de Condillac^ part 2. 
chap. 4. 

The ingenious author of — Notes on the Gramniatica Sinica of M. 
Fourmont — says, " According to the Grammaire Kaisonnee, les genres 
ont ete inventes pour les terminaisons. But the Mess, du Port Royal 
have discovered a different origin ; they tell us, that — Arbor est feminine, 
parceqiie comme une bonne mere elle porte du fruit. — Miratur non sua. 
How could Frenchmen forget that in their own la meilleure des langues 
possibles, Pruit-trees are masculine and their fruits feminine ? IMr. Harris 
has adopted this ide"a : he might as well have left it to its legitimate 
parents." — P. 47. 

^ " Sane in sexu seu genere physico omnes nationes convenire de- 
bebunt ; quoniam natura est eadem, nee ad placitum scriptorura mu- 
tatur. At Poetac et Pictores in coloribus non semper conveniimt. 
Vcntos Romani non solum finxerunt esse viros, sed et Deos : at He- 
bnri contra eos ut Nymphas pinxerunt. Arbores Latini specie foemi- 
nca pinxerunt ; virili Hispani, &e. Eegiones urbesque Deas esse voluit 
Cjicntilium Latinoruni Thcologia; at Germani omnia liaic ad neutrum 
rejecerunt. Et quidem in Genere, scu sexus distinctione grammaticii, 



CH. v.] OF THE ARTICLE AND INTERJECTION. 29 

made a part of the words themselves, and was shewn by 
cases or terminations. This contrivance of theirs, allowing 
them a more varied construction, made the terminating gen- 
ders of Adjectives useful, in order to avoid mistake and 
misapplication. 



CHAPTER V. 

OF THE ARTICLE AND INTERJECTION. 

5.— However connected with the Noun, and generally 
treated of at the same time, I suppose you forbear to mention 
the Articles at present, as not allowing them to be a separate 
Part of Speech; at least not a necessary Part; because, as 
Wilkins tells us, "the Latin is without them." ^ Notwith- 
standing which, when you consider with him that "they are so 
convenient for the greater distinctness of speech ; and that 
upon this account, the Hebrew, Greek, Sclavonic, and most 
other languages have them;" perhaps you will not think it 
improper to follow the example of many other Grammarians : 
who, though, like you, they deny them to be any part of 
speech, have yet treated of them separately from those parts 
which they enumerate. And this you may very consistently 
do, even though you should consider them, as the Abbe 
Girard calls them, m*erely the avant-coureurs to announce the 
approach or entrance of a Noun.^ 

magna est inter authores differentia : non solum in diversis Unguis, 
sed etiam in eadem. In Latina, ne ad aUas recurram, ahter Oratores, 
et aliter Poetee : ahter veteres, et aUter juniores sentiunt, &c. iberes 
in Asia florere dicuntur, et linguam habere elegantem, et tamen nullam 
generum varietatem agnoscunt." — Caramuel, Ixii. 

^ Essay, part 3. chap. 3. ,,,.,,/.• ^ 

2 " J'abandonne I'art de copier des mots dits et repetes miUe iois avant 
moi ; puisqu'ils n'expUquent pas les choses essentielles que j'ai dessem 
de faire entendre a mes lecteurs. Une etude attentive , faite d apres 
I'usage m'instruit bien mieux. Elle m'apprend que I'Article est un 
mot etabh pour annoncer et particularise!' simplement Li chose sans la 
nommer : c'est a dire, qu'il est une expression indefinie, quoique posi- 
tive, dont la juste valeur n'est que de faire naitre I'idee d'une espece 
subsistente qu'on distingue de la totalite des etres, pour ctre ensuite 



30 OF THE ARTICLE AND INTERJECTION. [PART I. 

H. — Of all the accounts wliicli have been given of the 
Article, I must own I think that of the very ingenious Abbe 
Girard to be the most fantastic and absurd. The fate of this 
very necessary word has been most singularly hard and unfor- 
tunate. For though without it, or some equivalent invention/ 
men could not communicate their thoughts at all; yet (like 
many of the most useful things in this world) from its un- 
affected simplicity and want of brilliancy, it has been ungrate- 
fully neglected and degTaded. It has been considered, after 
Scaliger_, as otiosum loquacissimce gentis Instrumentum ; or, at 
best, as a mere vaunt-courier to announce the coming of his 
master : whilst the brutish inarticulate Interjection, which has 
nothing to do with speech, and is only the miserable refuge of 
the speechless, has been permitted, because beautiful and 
gaudy, to usurp a place amongst words, and to exclude the 
Article from its well-earned dignity. But though the Article 
is denied by many Grammarians to be a Part of Speech ; it is 
yet, as you say, treated of by many, separately from those 

nominee. Cette definition en expose claireraent la nature et le service 
propre, an quel on le voit constamment attache dans quelque circon- 
stance que ce soit. Elle m'en donne une idee nette et determinee : me 
le fait reconnoitre par tout : et m'empeche de le confondre avec tout 
autre mot d'espece difFerente. Je sens parfaitement que lorsque je 
veux parler d'un objet qui se presente a mes yeux ou a mon imagina- 
tion, le genie de ma langue ne m'en fournit pas toujours la denomina- 
tion precise dans le premier instant de I'execution de la parole : que le 
plus souvent il m'oiFre d'abord un autre mot, comme un commencement 
de sujet propose et de distinction des autres objets; en sorte que ce mot 
est un vrai preparatoire a la denomination, par lequel elle est annoncee, 
avant que de se presenter elle-meme : Et voila V Article tel que je I'ai 
defini. Si cet Avant-coureur diminue la vivacite du langage, il y met 
en recompense une certaine politesse et une delicatesse qui naissent de 
cette idee preparatoire et indefinie d'un objet qu'on va nommer: car 
par ce moyen I'esprit etant rendu attentif avant que d'etre instruit, il a 
le plaisir d'aller au devant de la denomination, de la desirer, et de I'at- 
tendre avant que de la posseder. Plaisir qui a ici, comme ailleurs, un 
merite flatteur, propre a piquer le gout. — Qu'on me passe cette meta- 
phore ; puisqu'elle a de la justesse, et fait connoitre d'une maniere sen- 
sible une chose trh-metaphysiqne.'" — Disc. 4. 

^ For some equivalent invention, see the Persian and other Eastern 
languages ; which supply the phice of our Article by a termination to 
those Nouns which they would indefinitely particularize. 

This circumstance of fact (if there were not other reasons) sufficiently 
explodes Girard's notion of ylvant-roirreiirs. 



CH. v.] OF THE ARTICLE AND INTERJECTION. 31 

parts whicli they allow. This inconsistency^ and the cause of 
it are pleasantly ridiculed by Buonmattei^ whose understanding 
had courage sufficient to restore the Article ; and to launch 
out beyond quelle fatali colonne che gli antichi avevan segnate 
col — Non plus ultra, "Dodici/^ says he^ (Tratt. 7. cap. 22, 
23.) " affermiamo esser le Parti delP orazione nella nostra 
lingua. Ne ci siam curati che gli altri quasi tutti non ne 
voglion conceder piu d^ otto; mossi^ come si vede, da una 
certa soprastiziosa ostinazione (sia detto con pace e riverenza 
loro) che gli autori piu antichi hanno stabilito tal numero : 
Quasi che abbiano in tal modo proibito a noi il passar quelle 
fatali colonne che gli antichi avevan segnate col — Non plus 
ultra. Onde perche i Latini dice van tutti con una voce uni- 
forme — Partes Orationis sunt octo : — quel che intorno a cent' 
anni sono scrisson le regole di questa lingua_, cominciavan con 
la medesima cantilena. II che se sia da commendare o da 
biasimare non dirb : Basta che a me par una cosa ridicolosa, 
dire — Otto son le parti dell' orazione — e subito soggiugnere — 
Ma innanzi che io di quelle incominci a ragionare, fa mestiero 
che sopra gli Articoli alcuna cosa ti dica. 

" Questo e il medesimo che se dicessimo — Tre son le parti 
del mondo : Ma prima ch' io ti ragioni di quelle, fa mestiero 
che sopra FEuropa alcuna cosa ti dica." 

B. — As far as respects the Article I think you are right. 
But why such bitterness against the Interjection ? Why do 
you not rather follow Buonmattei's example ; and, instead of 
excluding both, admit them both to be Parts of Speech ? ^ 



^ What Scaliger says of the Participle may very justly be applied to 
this manner of treating the Article. " Si non est Nota, imo vero si 
nonnullis ne pars quidem orationis ulla, ab aliis separata, judicata est ; 
quo consilio ei rei, quae nusquam extat, sedem statuunt." — Lib. 7. cap. 
140. 

^ " Interjection era non esse partem orationis, sic ostendo. Quod 
naturale est, idem est apud omnes : sed gemitus et signa laeiitise idem 
sunt apud omnes :^sunt igitur naturales. Si vero naturales, non sunt 
paries orationis. Nam eae partes, secundum Aristotelem, ex institiito, 
non natura, debent constare. Interjectionem Graeci adverbiis adnumc- 
rant, sed falso : nam neque Grsecis literis scril^antur, sed signa tristitise, 
aut Iffititise, quaha in avibus, aut quadrupedibus, quibus tamen nee 
vocem nee orationem concedimus. Valla interjectionem a partibus 
orationis rejicit. Itaque Interjectionem a partibus orationis exeludi- 



32 OF THE ARTICLE AND INTERJECTION. [PART I. 

H. — Because the dominion of Speecli is erected upon the 
downfall of Interjections. Without the artful contrivances of 
Language^ mankind wottld have nothing but Interjections with 
which to communicate^ orally, any of their feelings. The 
neighing of a horse, the lowing of a cow, the barking of a dog, 
the purring of a cat, sneezing, coughing, groaning, shrieking, 
and every other involuntary convulsion with oral sound, have 
almost as good a title to be called Parts of Speech, as Inter- 
jections have. Voluntary Interjections are only employed 
when the suddenness or vehemence of some affection or passion 
returns men to their natural state ; and makes them for a 
moment forget the use of speech : ^ or when, from some cir- 
cumstance, the shortness of time will not permit them to 



mus : tantum abest, ut earn primam et prsecipuam cum Caesare Scali- 
gero constitiiamus." — Sanctii Minerva, lib. 1. cap. 2. Be partibus ora- 
Honis, page 17. Edit. Amst. 1714. 

^ The industrious and exact Cinonio, who does not appear ever to 
have had a single glimpse of reason, speaks thus of one interjection : — 

" I varj affetti cui serve questa interiezzione ^k et Ahi, sono piu di 
venti : ma v' abbisogna d' un avvertimento ; che neU' esprimerli sempre 
diversificano il suono, e vagliono quel tanto che, presso i Latini, Ah ; 
Proh ; Oh ; Vah ; Hei ; Pape, &c. Ma questa e parte spettante a chi 
pronunzia, che sappia dar loro 1' accento di quell' affetto cui servono ; 
e sono 

d' esclamazione. 

di dolersi. 

di svillaveggiare. 

di pregare. 

di gridare minacciando. 

di minacciare. 

di sospirare. 

di sgarare. 

di maravigliarsi. 

d' incitare. 

di sd^'no. 

di deslderare. 

di reprendere. 

di vendicarsi. 

di raccomandazione. < 

di comraovimento per allegrezza. 

di Limentarsi. 

di beffare. 

et altri varj." 

Annotazloni alV fratinto, (Jelle Particelle, di C'uwniOy 
capitolo 11. 



CH. v.] OF THE ARTICLE AND INTERJECTION. 33 

exercise it. And in books they are only used for embellish- 
ment_, and to mark strongly the above situations. But where 
Speech can be employed,, they are totally useless ; and are 
always insufficient for the purpose of communicating our 
thoughts. And indeed where will you look for the Inter- 
jection? Will you find it amongst laws^ or in books of civil 
institutions, in history, or in any treatise of useful arts or 
sciences ? No. You must seek for it in rhetorick and poetry, 
in novels, plays, and romances. 

B. — If what you say is true, I must acknowledge that the 
Article has had hard measure to be displaced for the Inter- 
jection. For by your declamation, and the zeal you have 
shewn in its defence, it is evident that you do not intend we 
should, with Scaliger, consider it merely as otiosum Instru- 
mentum. 

H. — Most assuredly not : though I acknowledge that it has 
been used otiose by many nations.^ And I do not wonder that, 
keeping his eyes solely on the superfluous use (or rather abuse) 
of it, he should too hastily conclude against this very necessary 
instrument itself. 

B. — Say you so ! very necessary instrument ! Since then 
you have, contrary to my expectation, allowed its necessity, I 
should be glad to know how the Article comes to be so neces- 
sary to Speech : and, if necessary, how can the Latin language 
be without it, as most authors agree that it is ? ^ And when 

^ " II seroit a souhaiier qu'on supprimat I'Article, toutes les fois 
que les noras sont suffisamment determines par la nature de la cliose 
ou par les circonstances ; le discours en seroit plus vif. Mais la grande 
habitude que nous nous en sommes faite, ne le permet pas : et ce n'est 
que dans des proverbes, plus anciens que cette habitude, que nous nous 
faisons une loi de le supprimer. On dit — Pauvrete n'est pas vice : au 
lieu de dire — La pauvrete nest pas un vice.'' — Condillac, Gram, part 3, 
chap. 14. 

Without any injury to the meaning of the passage, the article might 
have been omitted here by Condillac twelve or thirteen times. 

^ *i2y hoKCL ^OL nept, *Pa)/xat<i)i/ Xeyeii/ opa /icXXw vvv ofiov tl navTCS avdpcoirot 
Xpcovrai. Trpodeaeis re yap a(j)r]pr]Ke, 7r\r)v oXiycov, aTraaas, tcov re Ka\ovfi€va>u 
apdpcov ovBcv 7rpocr8f;(erai to Trapanav. — TikaraviKa ZrjTrjfiaTa, 6. 

" Articulus nobis nuUus et Grsecis superfluus." 

" Satis constat Grsecorum Articulos non neglectos a nobis, sed eorum 
usum superfluum." — /. 0. Scaliger de Causis L. L. cap. 72. — 131. 

It is pleasant after this to have Scaliger's authority against himself, 

D 



34 OF THE ARTICLE AND INTERJECTION. [PART I. 

you have given me satisfaction On those points^ you will permit 
me to ask you a few questions further. 

H, — You may learn its necessity, if you please, from Mr. Locke. 
And that once proved, it follows of consequence that I must 
deny its absence from the Latin or from any other Language.^ 

B. — Mr. Locke ! He has not so much as even once men- 
tioned the Article. 

H. — Notwithstanding which he has sufficiently proved its 
necessity ; and conducted us directly to its use and purpose. 
For in the eleventh chapter of the second book of his Essay, 
sect. 9, he says, — ^^ The use of words being to stand as out- 
ward marks of our internal ideas, and those ideas being taken 
from particular things ; if every particular idea should have a 
distinct name, names would be endless.^' So again, book 3. 
chap. 3. treating of General Terms ^ he says, — "All things 
that exist being particulars, it may perhaps be thought reason- 
able that words, which ought to be conformed to things, 
should be so too ; I mean in their signification. But yet we 
find the quite contrary. The far greatest part of words that 
make all languages, are General Terms. Which has not been 
the effect of neglect or chance, but of reason and necessity. 
For, first, it is impossible that every particular thing should 
have a distinct peculiar name. For the signification and use 
of words depending on that connexion which the mind makes 
between its ideas and the sounds it uses as signs of them ; it is 
necessary, in the application of names to things, that the mind 



and to hear him prove that the Latin not only has A^'ticles ; but even 
the very identical Article *0 of the Greeks : for he says (and, notwith- 
standing the etymological dissent of Vossius, says truly) that the Latin 
Qui is no other than the Greek icai 6. 

" Articulum, Fabio teste, Latinus sermo non desiderat : imo, me 
judice, plane ignorat." — G. J. Vossius. 

"Displeased with the redundance of Particles in the Greek, the 
Komans extended their displeasure to the Article, which they totally 
banished." — Notes on the Grammatica Sinica of Mons. Fonrmout, p. 54. 

^ *' L' Article indicatif se supplee sur tout par la terrainaison, dans les 
langues a terrainaisons, comme la langue Latine. C'cst ce qui avoit 
fait croire mal-a-propos que les Latins n'avoient aucun Article ; et qui 
avoit fait conclure plus mal-a-propos encore que I'Article n'etoit pas 
une partie du discours." — Court de Gebeliu, Gram. UniverseUe, p. 192. 

The Latin qnis is evidently Kai 6s ; and the Latin terminations us, «, 
unti no other than the Greek article 6s, ff, 6v. 



CH. v.] OF THE ARTICLE AND INTERJECTION. 35 

should have distinct ideas of the things^ and retain also the 
peculiar name that belongs to every one_, with its peculiar 
appropriation to that idea. We may therefore easily find a 
reason why men have never attempted to give names to each 
sheep in their flock, or crow that flies over their heads ; much 
less to call every leaf of plants or grain of sand that came in 
their way by a peculiar name. — Secondly, If it were possible, it 
would be useless : because it would not serve to the chief 
end of Language. Men would in vain heap up names of par- 
ticular things, that would not serve them to communicate their 
thoughts. Men learn names, and use them in talk with others, 
only that they may be understood ; which is then only done, 
when, by use or consent, the sound I make by the organs of 
speech excites in another man's mind who hears it, the idea I 
apply to it in mine when I speak it. This cannot be done by 
names applied to particular things, whereof I alone having the 
ideas in my mind, the names of them could not be significant 
or intelligible to another who was not acquainted with all those 
very particular things which had fallen under my notice.'^ — 
And again, sect. 11. — ^^ General and Universal belong not to 
the real existence of things ; but are the inventions and crea- 
tures of the Understanding, made by it for its own use, and 
concern only signs. Universality belongs not to things them- 
selves, which are all of them particular in their existence. 
When therefore we quit Particidars, the Generals that rest are 
only creatures of our own making ; their general nature being 
nothing but the capacity they are put into of signifying or 
representing many Particulars.^^ 

Now from this necessity of General Terms, foUows imme- ^ 
diately the necessity of the Article : whose business it is to 
reduce their generality, and upon occasion to enable us to 
employ general terms for Particulars. 

So that the Article also, in combination with a general term, 
is merely a substitute. But then it difiers from those substi- 
tutes which we have ranked under the general head of Abbre- 
viations : because it is necessary for the communication of our 
thoughts, and supplies the place of words which are not in the 
language. Whereas Abbreviations are not necessary for com- 
munication ; and supply the place of words which are in the 
language. 

D 2 



36 OF THE ARTICLE AND INTERJECTION. [PART I. 

B* — As far then as regards the Article, Mr. Harris seems 
at present to be the author most Kkely to meet with your 
approbation : for he not only establishes its necessity^ in order 
^^to circumscribe the latitude of genera and species/' and 
therefore treats of it separately ; but has raised it to a degree 
of importance much beyond all other modern Grammarians. 
And though he admits of only two Articles,, ^^ properly and 
strictly so called/' viz. a and the ; yet has he assigned to these 
two little words full one-fourth part in his distribution of 
language : which^ you know^ is into — '' Substantives^ Attribu- 
tives, Definitives, and Connectives.'' 

H. — If Mr. Harris has not entirely secured my concurrence 
with his doctrine of Definitives^ I must confess he has at least 
taken effectual care to place it compleatly beyond the reach of 
confutation. He says, 

1 . " The Articles have no meaning, but when associated to 
some other word." 

2. ''^ Nothing can be more nearly related than the Greek 
article 'O to the English article the." 

3. " But the article A defines in an imperfect manner." 

4. " Therefore the Greeks have no article correspondent to 
our article A." 

5. However, "they supply its place." 
— And How, think you ? 

6. "By a Negation '' — (observe well their method of supply) 
— " by a negation of their article 'O ; " (that is, as he well 
explains himself,) — " without any thing prefixed, but only 
the article 'O withdrawn." 

7. " Even in English, we also express the force of the article 
A, in plurals, by the same negation of the article the." ^ 

^ " It is perhaps owing to the imperfect manner in which the Article 
A defines, that the Greeks have no article correspondent to it, but supply 
its place by a negation of their Article 'O. — *0 avdpconos enea-ev, the man 
fell ; avOpanos errca-eu, A man fell ; — without any thing prefixed, but only 
the Article withdrawn. 

" Even in English, where the Article A cannot be used, as in plurals, 
its force is expressed by the same negation. — Those are the men, means. 
Those are individuals of which we possess some previous knowledge. — 
Those are men, the Article apart, means no more than they are so many 
vague and uncertain individuals; just as the phrase, — J man, in the 
singular, implies one of the same number." — Book 2. chap. 1. 



CH. v.] ADVERTISEMENT. 37 

Now here I acknowledge myself to be compleatly thrown 
out ; and, like the philosopher of old, merely for want of a firm 
resting-place on which to fix my machine : for it would have 
been as easy for him to raise the earth with a fulcrum of ether, 
as for me to establish any reasoning or argument on this sort 
of negation. For, " nothing being prefixed,'^ I cannot imagine 
in what manner or in what respect a negation of 'O or of the, 
difiers from a negation of Harris or of Pudding. For lack 
however of the light of comprehension, I must do as other 
Grammarians do in similar situations, attempt to illustrate by a 
parallel. 

I will suppose Mr. Harris (when one of the Lords of the 
Treasury) to have addressed the Minister in the same style of 
reasoning. — ^^ Salaries, Sir, produce no benefit, unless asso- 
ciated to some receiver : my salary at present is but an imper- 
fect provision for myself and family : but your salary as Minister 
is much more compleat. Oblige me therefore by withdrawing 
my present scanty pittance ; and supply its place to me by a 
negation of your salary .^^ — I think this request could not rea- 
sonably have been denied : and what satisfaction Mr. Harris 
would have felt by finding his theory thus reduced to practice, 
no person can better judge than myself; because I have expe- 
rienced a conduct not much dissimilar from the Rulers of the 
Inner Temple : who, having first inticed me to quit one pro- 
fession, after many years of expectation, have very handsomely 
supplied its place to me by a negation of the other. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

The three following chapters (except some small alterations 
and additions) have already been given to the public in A 
Letter to Mr. Dunning in the year 1778 : which, though 
published, was not written on the spur of the occasion. The 
substance of that Letter, and of all that I have further to com- 
municate on the subject of Language, has been amongst the 
loose papers in my closet now upwards of thirty years ; and 
would probably have remained there some years longer, and 



38 ADVERTISEMENT. 

have been finally consigned with myself to oblivion, if I had 
not been made the miserable victim of — Two Prepositions and a 
Conjunction. 

The officiating Priests indeed ^ were themselves of rank and 
eminence sufficient to dignify and grace my fall. But that the 
Conjunction that, and the Prepositions of and concerning 
(words which have hitherto been held to have no meaning) 
should be made the abject instruments of my civil extinction, 
(for such was the intention^ and such has been the consequence 
of my prosecution,) appeared to me to make my exit from civil 
life as degrading as if I had been brained by a lady's fan. 
For mankind in general are not sufficiently aware that words 
without meaning, or of equivocal meaning, are the everlasting 
engines of fraud and injustice : and that the grimgribber of 
Westminster- Hall is a more fertile, and a much more formidable, 
source of imposture than the abracadabra of magicians. 

Upon a motion made by me in arrest of judgment in the 
Court of King's Bench in the year 1777, the Chief Justice 
adjourned the decision : and instead of arguments on the merits 
of my objection, (which however by a side-wind were falsely 
represented by him as merely literal flaws, ^) desired that Pre- 
cedents might be brought by the Attorney General on a future 
day. None were however adduced but by the Chief Justice 
himself; who indeed produced two. (Thereby depriving me 
of the. opportunity of combating the Precedents and their 
application, which I should have had if they had been pro- 
duced by the Attorney General.^) And on the strength of 
these two Precedents alone, (forgetting his own description 



* Attorney General TJmrlow — since Chancellor and a Peer. 

Solicitor General Wedderhmie — since Chancellor and a Peer. 

Eaii Mansfield, Chief Justice. 

Mr. Biiller — since a Judge. 

Mr. Wallace — since Attorney General. 

Mr. Mansfield — since Solicitor General and C. J. of the C. Pleas. 

Mr. Bearcroft — since Chief Justice of Chester. 
^ " Lord Mansfield, 

" If the Defendant has a legal advantage from a Literal flaw, God 
forbid that he should not have the benefit of it." — Proceedings in K, B. 
The King against Home. 
^ " Lord Mansfield, 

" I fancy the Attorney General was mrpiized with the objection." 



ADVERTISEMENT. 39 

and distinction of the crime to the Jury,) he decided against 
me.^ 

I say, on the strength of these two precedents alone. For 
the gross perversion and misapplication of the technical term 
de bene esse, was merely pour eblouir, to introduce the proceed- 
ings on the trial, and to divert the attention from the only 
point in question — ^the sufficiency of the charge in the Record. 
— And I cannot believe that any man breathing (except Lord 

^ The Attorney General, in his reply, said to the Jury, ** Let us a 
little see what is the nature of the observations he makes. In the first 
place, that I left it exceedingly short : and the objection to my having 
left it short, was simply this ; that I had stated no more to you but 
this, that of imputing to the conduct of the King's troops the crime of 
murder. Now I stated it, as imputed to the troops^ oedered as tJiey 
toere upon the public service." 

Lord Mansfield to the Jmy : 

" Eead the paper. What is it ? Why it is this ; that our beloved 
American Fellow-subjects — in rebellion against the State — not beloved 
so as to be abetted in their rebellion." Again, — " What is the em- 
ployment they (the troops) are ordered upon? Why then what are they 
who gave the orders ? Draw the conclusion." Again, — " The unhappy 
resistance to the legislative authority of this kingdom by many of 
our Fellow-subjects in America : the legislature of this kingdom have 
avowed that the Americans rebelled : Troops are employed upon this 
ground. The case is here between a just Government and rebellious 
subjects.''^ — Again, — " You will read this paper ; you will judge whether 
it is not denying the Government and Legislative authority of LhiglandJ'^ 
And again, — " If you are of opinion that they were all murdered 
(like the cases of undoubted murders^ of Glenco, and twenty other 
massacres that might be named), why then you may form a different 
conclusion." 

And again — "If some soldiers. Without authority, had got in a 
drunken fray, and murder had ensued, and that this paper could relate 
to that, it would be quite a different thing from the charge in the inform- 
ation : because it is charged — as a seditious Libel tending to disquiet the 
minds of the People'^ (See the Trial.) 

A man must be not only well practised, but even hackneyed in our 
Courts of Justice to discover the above description of my crime in the 
Prepositions or and concerning. Be that as it may : It is evident 
that the Attorney General and the Chief Justice did not expect the 
Jury to be so enlightened ; and therefore {tchen I had no longer a right 
to open my lips) they described a crime to them in that plain language 
which I still contend I had a right to expect in the Information ; 
because — ''A seditious Libel tending to disquiet the minds of the people,'' 
— has been determined to be mere paper and packthread, and no part of 
the Charge. 



40 ADVERTISEMENT. 

Mansfield) either in the profession or out of it, will think it an 
argument against the validity of my objection; that it was 
brought forward only by myself, and had not been alleged before 
by the learned Counsel for the Printers. This, however, I can 
truly tell his lordship ; that the most learned of them all (absit 
invidia), Mr. Dunning, was not aware of the objection when I 
first mentioned it to him ; that he would not believe the inform- 
ation could be so defective in all its Counts till I produced to 
him an Office Copy : when to his astonishment he found it so, 
he felt no jealousy that the objection had been missed by him- 
self ; but declared it to be insuperable and fatal : and bad 
me rest assured, that whatever might be Lord Mansfield^s 
wishes, and his courage on such occasions, he would not dare 
to overrule the objection. And when, after the close of the first 
day, I hinted to him my suspicions of Lord Mansfield's inten- 
tions by the " God forbid ; '^ and by the perverted and misap- 
plied " De bene esse,^ in order to mix the proceedings on the 
trial with the question of record ; he smiled at it, as merely a 
method which his lordship took of letting the matter down 
gently, and breaking the abruptness of his fall. 

Strange as it may appear ! One of those Precedents was 
merely irnaghied by the Chief Justice, but never really existed. 
And the other (through ignorance of the meaning of the Con- 
junction that) had never been truly understood; neither by 
the Counsel who originally took the exception, nor perhaps by 
the Judges who made the decision, nor by the Reporter of it, 
nor by the present Chief Justice who quoted and misapplied it. 

Mr. Dunning undertook to prove (and did actually prove in 
the House of Lords) the non-existence of the main precedent. 
And I undertook, in that Letter to Mr. Dunning, to shew the 
r€al merits and foundation, and consequently Lord Mansfield's 
misapplication of the other. And I undertook this, because it 
afforded a very striking instance of the importance of the mean- 
ing of words ; not only (as has been too lightly supposed) to 
Metaphysicians and School-men, but to the rights and happi- 
ness of mankind in their dearest concerns — the decisions of 
Courts of Justice. 

In the House of Lords these two Precedents (the foundation 
of the Judgment in the Court of King's Bench) were aban- 
doned : and the description of my crime against Government 



OF THE WORD THAT. 41 

was adjudged to be sufficiently set forth by the Prepositions of 

and CONCERNING. 

Perhaps it may make my readers smile ; but I mention it as 
a further instance of the importance of inquiry into the mean- 
ing of words ; — that in the decision of the Judges in the House 
of Lords^ the Chief Justice De Grey (who found of and con- 
cerning so comprehensive, clear, and definite) began by 
declaring that — " the word Certainty [which the Law requires 
in the description of Crimes] is as indefinite [that is, as Uncer- 
tain] as any word that could be used/^ Now though certainty 
is so micertainj we must suppose the word Libel to be very 
definite : and yet, if I were called upon for an equivalent term, I 
believe I could not find in our language any word more popu- 
larly apposite than Calumny ; which is defined by Cicero, in 
his Offices, to be — " callida et malitiosa Juris interpret alio. '' 

If there was any Mistake (which, however, I am very far from 
believing) in this decision, sanctioned by the Judges and the 
House of Lords ; I shall be justified in applying (with the sub- 
stitution of the single word Grammatici for Istorici) what 
Giannone, who was himself an excellent lawyer, says of his 
countrymen of the same profession: — "Tanta ignoranza avea 
loro beudati gli occhi, che si pregiavano d'essere solamente 
Legisti, e non Grammatici; non accorgendosi, che perche non 
erano Grammatici, eran percib cattivi legist:/^ — 1st, Civil, di 
Napoli. Intro, 



CHAPTER VT. 

OF THE WORD THAT. 



B. — But besides the Articles, "properly and strictly so 
called,^' I think Mr. Harris and other Grammarians say that 
there are some words which, according to the difierent manner 
of using them, are sometimes Articles and sometimes Pronouns : 
and that it is difficult to determine to which class they ought 
to be referred.^ 

/ "It must be confessed indeed that all these words do not always 
appear as Pronouns. When they stand by themselves and represent 



42 OF THE WORD THAT. [PART I. 

H, — They do so. And, by so doing, sufficiently instruct us 
(if we will but use our common sense) what value we ought to 
put upon such classes and such definitions. 

B. — Can you give us any general rule by which to distinguish 
when they are of the one sort, and when of the other ? 

H. — Let them give the rule who thus confound together 
the Manner of signification of words, and the Abbreviations in 
their Construction : than which no two things in Language 
are more distinct, or ought to be more carefully distinguished. 
I do not allow that Any words change their nature in this 
manner, so as to belong sometimes to one Part of Speech, and 
sometimes to another, from the difierent ways of using them. 
I never could perceive any such fluctuation in any word what- 
ever : though I know it is a general charge brought erroneously 
against words of almost every denomination.^ But it appears 
to me to be all. Error : arising from the false measure which 
has been taken of almost every sort of words. Whilst the 
words themselves appear to me to continue faithfully and 
steadily attached, each to the standard under which it was 
originally inlisted. But I desire to wave this matter for the 
present ; because I think it will be cleared up by what is to 
follow concerning the other sorts of words : at least, if that 
should not convince you, I shall be able more easily to satisfy 
vou on this head hereafter. 



some Noun, (as when we say— this is virtue^ or SeiAcrtKajy, Give me 
THAT,) then are they Pronouns. But when they are associated to some 
Noun, (as when we say — this habit is virtue, or Set/criKws, that man 
defrauded ?ne,) then, as they supply not the place of a Noun, but only 
serve to ascertain one, they fall rather into the species of Definitives or 
Articles. That there is indeed a near relation between Pronouns and 
Articles, the old Grammarians have all acknowledged ; and some words 
it has been doubtful to which class to refer. The best rule to distin- 
guish them is this. — The genuine Pronoun always stands by itself, 
assuming the power of a noun, and supplying its place. — The genuine 
Article never stands by itself, but appears at all times associated to 
something else, requiring a noun for its support, as much as Attributives 
or Adjectives." — Hermes, book 1. chap. 5. 

^ '* Certains mots sont Adverhes, Prepositions, et Conjonctions en 
meme temps : et rcpondent ainsi au meme temps a divcrses parties 
d'oraison selon que la grammaire les emploie diversement." — Buffier, 
art. 150. 

And so say all otlier Grammarians. 



JcH. VI.] OF THE WORD THAT. 43 

B. — I would not willingly put you out of your own way, 
and am contented to wait for the explanation of many things 
till you shall arrive at the place which you may think proper 
for it. But really what you have now advanced seems to me 
so very extraordinary and contrary to fact^ as well as to the 
uniform declaration of all Grammarians, that you must excuse 
me if, before we proceed any further, I mention to you one 
instance. 

Mr. Harris and other Grammarians say that the word that 
is sometimes an Article and sometimes a Pronoun. However, I 
do not desire an explanation of ihat [point] : because I see how 
you will easily reconcile that [difference], by a subauditur or an 
abbreviation of Construction : and I agree with you there. But 
what will you do with the Conjunction that ? 

Is not this a very considerable and manifest fluctuation and 
difference of signification in the same word ? Has the Conjunc- 
tion THAT, any the smallest correspondence or similarity of 
signification with that, the Article, or Pronoun ? 

H. — In, my opinion the word that (call it as you please, 
either Article, or Pronoun, or Conjunction) retains always one 
and the same signification. Unnoticed abbreviation in con- 
struction and difference of position have caused this appearance of 
fluctuation ; and misled the Grammarians of all languages, both 
ancient and modern : for in all they make the same mistake. 
Pray, answer me a question. Is it not strange and improper 
that we should, without any reason or necessity, employ 
in English the same word for two different meanings and 
purposes ? 

B. — I think it wrong : and I see no reason for it, but many 
reasons against it. 

H. — Well ! Then is it not more strange that this same im- 
propriety, in this same case, should run through all languages ? 
And that they should all use an Article, without any reason, 
unnecessarily, and improperly, for this same Conjunction; with 
which it has, as you say, no correspondence nor similarity of 
signification ? 

B. — If they do so, it is strange. 

H. — They certainly do; as you will easily find by inquiry. 
Now does not the uniformity and universality of this supposed 
mistake, and unnecessary impropriety, in languages which 



44 OF THE WORD THAT. [PART I. 

have no connexion with each other^ naturally lead us to suspect 
that this usage of the Article may perhaps be neither mistaken 
nor improper ? But that the mistake may lie only with us, who 
do not understand it ? 

B. — No doubt what you have said, if true, would afford 
ground for suspicion. 

H. — If true ! Examine any languages you please, and see 
whether they also, as well as the English, have not a supposed 
Conjunction which they employ as we do that; and which is 
also the same word as their supposed Article, or Pronoun. 
Does not this look as if there was some reason for employing 
the Article in this manner ? And as if there was some con- 
nexion and similarity of signification between it and this Con- 
junction ? 

B. — The appearances, I own, are strongly in favour of your 
opinion. But how shall we find out what that connexion is ? 

H. — Suppose we examine some instances ; and, still keep- 
ing the same signification of the sentences, try whether we 
cannot, by a resolution of their construction, discover what we 
want. 

Example. — " I wish you to believe that I would not wilfully 
hurt a fly.^^ 

Resolution. — " I would not wilfully hurt a fly ; I wish you to 
believe that [assertion] .^^ 

Ex. — '^ She, knowing that Crooke had been indicted for 
forgery, did so and so/^ 

Resol. — ^' Crooke had been indicted for forgery ; she, knowing 
that [fact], did so and so.^^^ 

Ex. — " You say that the same arm which, when contracted, 
can lift — ; when extended to its utmost reach, will not be able 
to raise — . You mean that we should never forget our situa- 
tion, and that we should be prudently contented to do good 
within our own sphere, where it can have an effect : and that we 
should not be misled even by a virtuous benevolence and public 
spirit, to waste ourselves in fruitless efforts beyond our power of 
influence." 

Resol. — " The same arm which, when contracted, can lift — ; 
when extended to its utmost reach, will not be able to raise — : 

^ King V. Law ley. Strange's Reports, Easter T. 4 Geo. II. 



CH. VI.] OF THE WORD THAT. 45 

j^ou say THAT. We should never forget our situation ; you 
mean that : and we should be contented to do good within our 
own sphere where it can have an effect ; you mean that : and 
we should not be misled^ even by a virtuous benevolence and 
public spirit to waste ourselves in fruitless efforts beyond our 
power of influence ; you mean that.^' 

f£^a?. — " They who have well considered that kingdoms rise 
or fallj and that their inhabitants are happy or miserable, not 
so much from any local or accidental advantages or disadvan- 
tages ; but accordingly as they are well or ill governed ; may 
best determine how far a virtuous mind can be neutral in 
politics." 

Resol. — "Kingdoms rise or fall, not so much from any 
local or accidental advantages or disadvantages, but accord- 
ingly as they are well or ill governed ; they who have well 
considered that [maxim], may best determine how far a vir- 
tuous mind can be neutral in politics. And the inhabitants of 
kingdoms are happy or miserable, not so much from any local 
or accidental advantages or disadvantages^ but accordingly as 
they are well or ill governed ; they who have considered that, 
may best determine how far a virtuous mind can be neutral in 
politics.'^ ^ 

^ " Le despotisme ecrase de son sceptre de fer le plus beau pays du 
monde : II semble que les malheurs des horames croissent en proportion 
des efforts que la nature fait pour les rendre heureux." — Savary. 

" Dans ce paradis ten*estre, au milieu de tant de richesses, qui croi- 
roit que le Slamois est peut-etre le plus miserable des peuples? Le 
gouvernement de Slam est despotique : le souverain jouit seul du droit 
de la liberte natiu'elle a tous les hommes. Ses sujets sont ses esclaves ; 
chacun d'eux lui doit six mois de service personnel chaque annee, sans 
aucun salaire et meme sans nourriture. II leur accorde les six autres 
pour se procurer de quoi vivre." [Happy, happy England, if ever tliy 
miserable inhabitants shall, in respect of taxation, be elevated to the 
condition of the Slamois; when thy Taskmasters shall be contented 
w*th half the produce of thy industiy !] " Sous un tel gouvernement 
il n'y a point de loi qui protege les particuliers contre la violence, et 
qui leur assure aucune propriete. Tout depend des fantaisies d'un 
prince abruti par toute sorte d'exces, et surtout par ceux du pouvoir ; 
qui passe ses jours enferme dans un serrail, ignorant tout ce qui se fait 
hors de son palais, et sur tout les malheurs de ses peuples. Cependant 
ceux-ci sont livres a la cupidite des gi-ands, qui sont les premiers 
esclaves, et approchent seals a des jours marques, mais toujonrs cu 
Iremblant, de la personne du despote, qu'ils adorent comme une divinite 



46 OF THE WORD THAT. [PART. I. 

Ea^. — " Thieves rise by night that they may cut men's 
throats." 

Resol. — "Thieves may cut men's throats; (for) tk at {pur- 
pose) they rise by night/^ 

After the same manner, I imagine, may all sentences be 
resolved (in all languages) where the Conjunction that (or its 
equivalent) is employed : and by such resolution it will always 
be discovered to have merely the same force and signification, 
and to be in fact nothing else but the very same word which in 
other places is called an Article or a Pronoun. 

— sujette a des caprices dangereux." — Voyages d^un Philosophe [Mons. 
Poivre]. Londres, 1769. 

The above heart-rending reflections which Savary makes at the sight of 
Egypt, and Mons. Poivre at the condition of Siam, might serve as other 
examples for the Conjunction in question : but I give them for the sake 
of their matter. And I think myself at least as well justified (I do not 
expect to be as well rewarded) as our late Poet Laureat ; who, upon the 
following passage of Milton's Comus, 

^^And sits as safe as in a Senate Tiouse^^ 
adds this flagitious note : 

" Not many years after this was written, Milton's Friends shewed 
that the safety of a Senate house was not inviolable. But when the 
people turn Legislators, what place is safe against the tumults of inno- 
vation, and the insults of disobedience ? " 

I believe our late Laureat meant not so much to cavil at Milton's 
expression, as to seize an impertinent opportunity of recommending 
himself to the powers which he, by a cowardly insult on the dead and 
persecuted author's memory, and on the aged, defenceless constitution of 
his country. 

A critic who should really be displeased at Milton's expression, would 
rather shew its impropriety by an event which had happened before it was 
used, than by an event which the poet could not at that time foresee. 
Such a critic, adverting to the 5th of November, 1605, and to the 4th of 
January. 1641, might more truly say — "Not many years, both before and 
after this was written, Warton's Friends shewed that the safety of a 
Senate house was not inviolable." 

With equal impertinence and malignity (pages 496, 538.) has he raked 
up the ashes of Queen Caroline and Queen Elizabeth ; whose privffte 
characters and inoffensive amusements were as little connected with 
Milton's poems, as this animadversion on Warton is with the subject I 
am now treating. 

Perhaps, after all, the concluding line of Milton's epitaph, 
" Eege sub augusto fas sit laudare Catonem," 
is artfully made by Mr. Warton the concluding line also of his Notes ; in 
order to account for his present virulence, and to soften the resentment 
of his readers, at the cxpencc of his patron. 



CH. VI.] OF THE WORD THAT. 4:7 

B, — For any thing that immediately occurs to me, this may 
perhaps be the case in English, where that is the only Con- 
junction of the same signification which we employ in this 
manner. But your last example makes me believe that this 
method of resolution will not take place in those languages 
which have difierent Conjunctions for this same purpose. And 
if so, I suspect that your whole reasoning on this subject may 
be without foundation. For how can you resolve the original 
of your last example ; where (unfortunately for your notion) ut 
is employed, and not the neuter Article quod ? 

" Ut jugnlent homines surgunt de nocte latrones." 
I suppose you will not say that ut is the Latin neuter Article. 
For even Sanctius, who struggled so hard to withdraw quod 
from amongst the Conjunctions, yet still left ut amongst them 
without molestation.^ 

^ It is not at all extraordinary that ut and quod should he indiffer- 
ently used for the same conjunctive pui'pose : for as ut (originally writ- 
ten uti) is nothing but 6tl -. so is quod (anciently written quodde) 
merely Kai 6ttl. 

" Quodde tuas laudes culpas, nil proficis hilum." — Liicilius. 

(See Note in Havercamp's and Creech's Lucretius ; where quodde 
is mistakenly derived from orrtSe.) qu, in Latin, being sounded (not 
as the English but as the French pronounce QU, that is) as the Greek 
K ; Kai (by a change of the character, not of the sound) became the Latin 
Qite (used only encHticaUy indeed in modern Latin). Hence Kai 6rrt 
became in Latin Qu'otti — Qiioddi — Quodde — Quod. Of which if Sanc- 
tius had been aware, he would not have attempted a distinction between 
ut and quod : since the two words, though differently corrupted, are in 
substance and origin the same. 

The perpetual change of T into D, and vice versa, is so very familiar 
to all who have ever paid the smallest attention to Language, that I 
should not think it worth while to notice it in the present instance ; if 
all the etymological canonists, whom I have seen, had not been remark- 
ably inattentive to the organical causes of those literal changes of which 
they treat. 

Skinner (who was a Physician) in his Trolegoniena Etymologica, 

speaking of the frequent transmutation of s into z, says very truly 

" Sunt sane literse sono/ere eeedem." 

But in what does that fere consist ? For s is not nearer in sound to 
z, than p is to b, or than t is to d, or than r is to v, or than K is to g, 
or than th (9) in Thing, is to TH (D) in TJiat, or than sn is to the 
French j. 

(N.B. — TH and SH are simple consonants, and should be marked by 
single letters. J, as the English pronounce it, is a double consonant ; 
and should have two characters.) 



With the 
Compression 



Without the 
Compression 



48 OP THE WORD THAT. [PART I. 

H. — You are not to expect from me that I should, in this 
place, account etymologically for , the diflPerent words which 
some languages (for there are others beside the Latin) may 
sometimes borrow and employ in this manner instead of their 
own common Article. But if you should hereafter exact it, I 
shall not refuse the undertaking : although it is not the easiest 
part of Etymology : for Abbreviation and Corruption are 
always busiest with the words which are most frequently in use. 
Letters, like soldiers, being very apt to desert and drop off in 
a long march, and especially if their passage happens to lie 
near the confines of an enemy's country.^ Yet I doubt not 

For these seven couple of simple consonants, viz. 

B — P 
G — K 
D — T 

^ z -s y 
D — e 
Y -^ p 

1^ J — SH J 

differ each from its partner, by no variation whatever of articulation ; 
but singly by a certain unnoticed and almost imperceptible motion or 
compression of or near the Larynx ; which causes what Wilkins calls 
" some kind of murmure.^'' This compression the Welch never use. So 
that when a Welchman, instead of 

" I vow, by God, Dat Jenkin iz a Wizzard," 

pronounces it thus, 

" I fow, py Cot, Gat Shenkin iss a Wissart ; " 

he articulates in every other respect exactly as we do ; but omits the 
compression nine times in this sentence. And for faihng in this one 
point only, changes seven of our consonants : for we owe seven addi- 
tional letters (i. e., seven additional sounds in our language) solely to the 
addition of this one compression to seven different articulations. 

^ " Nous avons deja dit, que I'alteration du derive augmentoit a 
mesure que le temps I'eloignoit du primitif; et nous avons ajoutc — 
toutes cJioses d'ailleurs egales — parceque la quantite de cette alteration 
depend aussi du cours que ce mot a dans le public. II s'use, pour ainsi 
dire, en passant dans un plus grand nombre de bouches, sur tout dans 
la bouchc du peuple : et la rapidite de cette circulation equivaut ;\ unc 
plus longue duree. Les noms des Saints et les noms de baptcme les 
plus communs, en sout un exemple. Les mots qui reviennent le plus 
souvent dans les langues, tels que les vcrbcs ctre, faire, vouloir, aller, 
et tous ccux qui servent a licr les autrcs mots dans le discours, sont 
sujets a dc plus grandcs alterations. Ce sont ccux qui out le plus be- 



CH. VI.] OF THE WORD THAT. 49 

that, with this clue, you will yourself be able, upon inquiry, to 
account as easily (and in the same manner) for the use of all the 
others, as I know you can for ut ; which is merely the Greek 
neuter Article otlJ^ adopted for this conjunctive purpose by the 
Latins, and by them originally written uti : the o being changed^ 
into u, from that propensity which both the antient Romans 
had,^ and the modern Italians still have,^ upon many occasions, 
to pronounce even their own o like an u. Of which I need not 
produce any instances.* . 

The Resolution therefore of the original will be like that of 
the translation; 

" Latrones jiigiilent homines (At) 6tl surgunt de nocte." 

soin d'etre fixes par la langue ecrite." — Uncyclo'pedie {Etymologie) par 
M. De Brasses. 

^ "Uti est mutata on.''^ — /. C. Scaliger de Catisis L. L. cap. 173. 
' ^ So in the antient form of self-devotion. 

"VTEI. EGO. AXIM. PRAI. ME. FORMIDINEM. METOM. QUE. OMNIOM. 
DIRAS. SIC VTEI. VEKBEIS. NONCOPASO. ITA. PRO. REPOPLICA. POPOLI. 
ROMANI. QUIRITIOM. VITAM. SALUTEM. QUE. MEAM. LEGIONES. AUXSILIA. 
QUE. HOSTIOM. MEOM. DIVEIS. MANEB0U3. TELLOURI. QUE. DEVOVEO." 

So in the laws of Numa^ and in the twelve tables, and in all antient 
inscriptions, o is perpetually found where the modern Latin uses u. 
And it is but reasonable to suppose, that the pronunciation preceded the 
change of the orthography. 

^ " Quant a la voyelle u pour ce qu'ils (les Ttaliens) I'aiment fort, ainsi 
que nous cognoissons par ces mots Ufflcio, Ubrigato, &c. je pense bien 
qu'ils la respectent plus que les autres." — Henri Ustiene, de la Precell. 
de la L. F. 

* " L' a stretta amicizia coll' v, usandosi in molte voci scambie- 
volmente." — Menage^ Cambiamenti delle Lettere, page 16. 

Menage quotes Quinctilian, Festus, Yelius Longus, Victorinus, Cas- 
siodorus, Servius, Priscian, Virgil, Jul. Cses. Scahger. 

" La V par che prevalesse ne' primi tempi e piu remoti, quando i 
Latini, memori della Eolica origine, o imitando gli Umbri e gli Etruschi, 
literam v pro o efferebant : * e pronunziavano Funtes, Frundes, AcJterunte, 
Humones, e simili.f Quindi Ovidio, avendo detto che una volta il nome 
di Orione era Urion, soggiugne — perdidit antiquum liter a prima solium. % 
Ne' tempi posteriori si ando all' altro estremo ; e all' antica lettera fu 
sostituita quasi sempre la o, come vedesi in Novios Plautios, e in altre 
voci della tavola seconda. Prisciano ne da per ragione : quia mtiltis 
ItalifB populis V in usu non erat, sed e contrario utebnntur o :§ dicendosi 
verbigrazia, CoVpa^ Exsoles, per Culpa, Exules, &c."|| — Lanzi, Saggio di 
Lingua Etrusca, tom. i. pag. 124. 



* Pest. vid. Orcus. f Quinct. 1. 4. + Past. v. 

§ Pag. 554. II Cassiod. 2284. 



50 OF THE WORD THAT. [PART I. 

B. — You have extricated yourself pretty well out of this 
scrape with ut. And perhaps have done prudently, to decline 
the same sort of explanation in those other languages which, as 
well as the Latin, have likewise a double Conjunction for this 
purpose, not quite so easily accounted for, because not ready 
derived to your hands. But I have not yet done with the 
English : for though your method of resolution will answer with 
most sentences, yet I doubt much whether it will with all. I 
think there is one usage of the conjunction that which it will 
not explain. 

H. — Produce an instance. 

B. — The instances are common enough. But I chuse to take 
one from your favourite Sad Shepherd: in hopes that the 
difficulty it may cause you will abate something of your ex- 
treme partiality for that piece. Which, though it be 

** such wool 

As from mere English flocks his Muse could pull," 

you have always contended obstinately, with its author, is 

" a Pleece 

To match or those of Sicily or Greece." 

Example. 

" I wonder he can move ! that he 's not fixed 1 
If that his feelings be the same with mine." 

So again in Shakespeare,^ 

" If that the kinoj 

Have any way your good deserts forgot. 
He bids you name your griefs." 

How will you bring out the Article that, when two Conjunc- 
tions (for I must still call that a Conjunction, till all my 
scruples are satisfied) come in this manner together ? 



ADVERTISEMENT. 
I PRESUME my readers to be acquainted with French, Latin, 
Italian and Greek; which are unfortunately the usual boun- 
daries of an English scholai-^s acquisition. On this supposition, 
a friend of mine lamented that, in my Letter to Mr. Dunning, I 
had not confined myself to the common English character for 
the Anglo-Saxon and Gothic derivations. 

* First Part of Henri/ IF. act 4. scene 5, 



CH. VI.] 



OF THE WORD THAT. 



51 



In the present publication I should undoubtedly have con- 
formed to his wishes, if I had not imagined that, by inserting 
the Anglo-Saxon and Gothic characters in this place, I might 
possibly allure some of my readers to familiarize themselves 
with those characters, by an application of them to the few 
words of those languages which are here introduced : and thus 
lead the way to their better acquaintance with the parent lan- 
guage, which ought long ago to have made a part of the edu- 
cation of our youth. And I flatter myself that one of the con- 
sequences of my present inquiry will be to facilitate and abridge 
the tedious and mistaken method of instruction which has too 
long continued in our seminaries : the time which is at present 
allotted to Latin and Greek, being amply sufl&cient for the 
acquirement also of French, Italian, Anglo-Saxon, Dutch, 
German, Danish and Swedish. Which will not seem at aU 
extraordinary, when it is considered that the five last mentioned 
(together with the English) are little more than dijfferent 
dialects of one and the same language. And though this was by 
no means the leading motive, nor is the present object of my 
inquiry ; yet I think it of considerable importance : although I 
do not hold the acquisition of languages in so very great 
estimation as the Emperor Charles the Vth did; who, as 
Brantome tells us, '^ disoit et repetoit souvent, quand il tomboit 
sur la beaute des langues, (selon Popinion des Turcs) — 
qu'autant de langues que Thomme s^ait parler, autant de fois 
est-il homme.'' ? 



Anglo-Saxon. 



B 
E 
D 

e 

F 
D 

* 

I 

* 

K 
L 

CO 



a 
b 
c 
& ■ 

e 

F 

Z 
h 

« 

1 

* 

k 

1 

m 



a 
b 
k 
d 
e 
f 

g 
h 

* 

i 

« 

k 
1 
m 



N 
O 

P 

« 

E, 

8 
T 

U 

P 

X 

Y 

Z 



n 


n 








s 


P 


? 


r 


Y 

t 


s 
t 


«j, 


th 


u 


u 


P 


w 


X 


X 


y 


7 


z 


z 



A 

B 
6 

r 
h 

O 
I 

9 

K 
A 

M 



Moeso-GotMc. 
N 

n 
u 
K 

s 

T 

n 

V 
X 

X 



a 

b 

* 

d 
e 
f 

h 

hw 

i 

jandy 

k 

1 

m 



n 
o 

P 

cw 

r 

s 

t 

th 

u 

w 

ch 

« 

z 



1 2 



<L (*i (V ~ 



53 OF CONJUNCTIONS. [PART 1. 



CHAPTER VII. 

OF CONJUNCTIONS. 

H, — I WAS afraid of some such instances as these^ when I 
wished to postpone the whole .consideration of this subject 
till after we had discussed the other received Parts of Speech. 
Because, in order to explain it, I must forestall something of 
what I had to say concerning Conjunctions. However, since 
the question is started, perhaps it may be as well to give it 
here. 

The truth of the matter is, that if is merely a Verb. It is 
merely the Imperative of the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon verb 
riJr/VlSr, Iripan. And in those languages, as weU as in the 
English formerly, this supposed Conjunction was pronounced 
and written as the common Imperative, purely Pljr, df^ Gif. 
Thus 

" My largesse 

Hath lotted her to be your brother's mistresse 
GIF shee can be reclaim'd ; gif not, his prey." ^ 

And accordingly our corrupted if has always the signification 
of the English Imperative Give ; and no other. So that the 
resolution of the construction in the instances you have 
produced, will be as before in the others. 

Resolution. — " His feelings be the same with mine, give 
THAT, I wonder he can move,^-* &c. 

" The King may have forgotten your good deserts, give that 
in any way, he bids you name your griefs.'^ 

And here, as an additional proof, we may observe, that 
whenever the Datum, upon which any conclusion depends, is a 
sentence, the Article that, if not expressed, is always under- 
stood, and may be inserted after if. As in the instance I have 
produced above, the Poet might have said, 

" Gif that she can be reclaimed," &c. 

For the resolution is — "She can be reclaimed. Give that; 
my largesse hath lotted her to be your brother's mistresse. She 
cannot be reclaimed. Give that ; my largesse hath lotted her to 
be your brother's prey." 

^ Sad ShepJierd, act 2. scene 1. 



CH. VII.] OF CONJUNCTIONS. 53 

But the Article that is not understood/ and cannot be 
inserted after ir^ where the Datum is not a sentence, but some 
Noun governed by the Verb if or give. As, — 

Example. — " How will the weather dispose of you to- 
morrow? IF fair, it will send me abroad; if foul, it will keep 
me at home/^ 

Here we cannot say — ^' if that fair it will send me abroad ; 
IF that foul it will keep me at home/^ — Because in this case 
the verb if governs the Noun ; and the resolved construction 

is. 

" GIVE fair weather, it will send me abroad ; give foul weather, 

it will keep me at home.^^ 

But make the Datum a sentence. As — '' if it is fair weather, 
it will send me abroad ; if it is foul weather, it will keep me at 
home : ^^ 

And then the article that is understood, and may be inserted 
after if ; As — '' if that it is fair weather, it will send me 
abroad ; if that it is foul weather, it will keep me at home/^ 

The resolution then being, 
" It is fair weather, give that ; it will send me abroad ; It is 
foul weather, give that ; it will keep me at home/'' 

And this you will find to hold universally, not only with if ; 
but with many other supposed Conjunctions ^ such as. But that, 
Unless that J Though that, Lest that, &c. (which are really Verbs) 
put in this manner before the Article that. 

B. — One word more to clear up a difficulty which occurs to 
me concerning your account of if, and I have done. 

We have in English another word which (though now rather 
obsolete) used frequently to supply the place of if. As — ^^ an 
you had any eye behind you, you might see more detraction at 
your heels, than fortunes before you.^v ^ 

In this and in all similar instances, what is an ? For I can 
by no means agree with the account which Dr. S. Johnson 
gives of it in his Dictionary : and I do not know that any other 
person has ever attempted to explain it. 

H. — How does he account for it ? 

B. — He says, — ^^an is sometimes in old authors a con- 
traction of And ifP Of which he gives a very unlucky in- 

1 Twelfth Night, act 2. scene 8. 



54 OF CONJUNCTIONS. [PART I. 

stance from Shakespeare; ^ where both an and if are used in 

the same line. 

" He cannot flatter, He ! 

An honest mind and plain : he must speak Truth : 
An they will take it, — So. if not ; He 's plain." 

Where, if an was a contraction of and if ; an and if should 
rather change places. 

H. — I can no more agree with Dr. S. Johnson than you do. 
A part of one word only, employed to shew that another word 
is compounded with it, would indeed be a curious method of 
con-traction. Though even this account of it would serve my 
purpose. But the truth will serve it better: and therefore I 
thank you for your difficulty. It is a fresh proof, and a very 
strong one in my favour, an is also a Verb, and may very well 
supply the place of if ; it being nothing else but the Imperative 
of the Anglo-Saxon verb 5Snan, which likewise means to (xivCy 
or to Grant, 

B, — It seems indeed to be so. But, if so, how can it ever 
be made to signify as if ? For which also, as well as for And 
if J Johnson says an is a con-traction.* 

H. — It never signifies As if: nor is ever a contraction of 
them. 

B. — Johnson however advances Addison^s authority for it, 

'^ My next pretty correspondent, like Shakespeare's Lion in 

P3rramus and Thisbe, roars an it were any nightingale.'' 

H. — If Addison had so written, I should answer roundly, 
that he had written false English. But he never did so write. 
He only quoted it in mirth and ridicule, as the author wrote it. 
And Johnson, an Editor of Shakespeare, ought to have known 
and observed it. And then, instead of Addison's or even 
Shakespeare's authority, from whom the expression is bor- 
rowed ; he should have quoted Bottom' Sy the Weaver : whose 
language corresponds with the character Shakespeare has given 
him, — 



^ Lear, act 2. scene 6. 

' This arbitrary method of contraction is very useful to an idle or 

ignorant expositor. It will suit any thing. S. Johnson also says 

" An't, a contraction for And it ; or rather And if it ; as — An't please 
you — that is, And if it please you.'' It is merely — an it please you. 



CH. VII.] OF CONJUNCTIONS. 55 

" The shallowest thichskull of that barren iort^ viz. 
A crew of Patches, rude Mechanicals, 
That work for Bread upon Athenian Stalls ^ ^ 

" I will aggravate my voice so (says Bottom) that I will roar 
you as gently as any sucking Dove : I will roar you an 'twere 
any nightingale." ^ 

If Johnson is satisfied with such authority as this, for the 
different signification and propriety of English words_, he will 
find enough of it amongst the clowns in all our comedies ; and 
Master Bottom in particular in this very sentence will furnish 
him with many new meanings. But_, I believe, Johnson will 
not find AN used for As if, either seriously or clownishly, in 
any other part of Addison or Shakespeare ; except in this speech 
of Bottom, and in another of Hostess Quickly — " He made 
a finer end, and went away an it had been any Christom 
child."^ 

B. — In English then, it seems, these two words which have 
been called conditional Conjunctions (and whose force and 
manner of signification, as well as of all the others, we are 
directed by Mr. Locke to search after in " the several views, 
postures, stands, turns, limitations, and exceptions, and several 
other thoughts of the mind, for which we have either none or 
very deficient names ") are, according to you, merely the original 
Imperatives of the verbs to Give or to Grant, 

Now let me understand you. I do not mean to divert you 
into an etymological explanation of each particular word of. 
other languages, or even of the English, and so to change our 
conversation from a philosophical inquiry concerning the nature 
of Language in general, into the particular business of a poly- 
glot Lexicon. But, as you have said that your principles wiQ 
apply universally, I desire to know whether you mean that the 
conditional conjunctions of all other languages are likewise to 
be found, like ir and an, in the original Imperatives of some 
of their own or derived verbs, meaning to Give ? 

H. — No. If that was my •opinion, I know you are ready 
instantly to confute it by the Conditionals of the Greek and 
Latin and Irish, the French, Italian, Spanish, Portugueze and 

^ Midsummer Nighfs Bream, act 3. scene 2. 

^ Ibid, act 1. scene 2. 

^ Henry V. act 2. scene 3. 



56 OF CONJUNCTIONS. [PART I. 

many other Languages. But I mean_, that those words which 
are called conditional conjunctions, are to be accounted for in 
ALL languages in the same manner as I have accounted for if 
and AN. Not indeed that they must all mean precisely as 
these two do^ — Give and Grant; but some word equivalent: 
Such as^ — Be it, Suppose, Alloiv, Permit, Put, Suffer, &c. 
Which meaning is to be sought for from the particular etymo- 
logy of eadh respective language^ not from some un-named and 
un-known *^^ Turns, Stands, Postures, &c. of the mind." In 
short, to put this matter out of doubt, I mean to discard all 
supposed mystery, not only about these Conditionals, but about 
all those words also which Mr. Harris and others distinguish 
from Prepositions, and call Conjunctions of Sentences. I deny 
them to be a separate sort of words or Part of Speech by them- 
selves. For they have not a separate manner of signijication : 
although they are not devoid of signification. And the par- 
ticular signification of each must be sought for from amongst 
the other parts of Speech, by the help of the particular etymo- 
logy of each respective language. By such means alone can 
we clear away the obscurity and errors in which Grammarians 
and Philosophers have been involved by the corruption of some 
common words, and the useful Abbreviations of Construction. 
And at the same time we shall get rid of that farrago of useless 
distinctions into Conjunctive, Adjunctive, Disjunctive, Subdis- 
junctive. Copulative, Negative copulative,^ Continuative, Sub- 
continuative. Positive, Suppositive, Casual, Collective, Effective, 
Approbative, Discretive, Ablative, Presumptive, Abnegative, 
Completive, Augmentative, Alternative, Hypothetical, Extensive, 
Periodical, Motival, Conclusive, Explicative, Tra?isitive, Inter- 
rogative, Comparative, Diminutive, Pt-eventive, Adequate Pre- 
ventive, Adversative, Conditional, Suspensive, Illative, Con- 
ductive, Declarative, &c. &c. &c., which explain nothing ; and 
(as most other technical terms are abused) serve only to throw 
a veil over the ignorance of those who employ them.'' 

^ " Non, Nun, iion minus disjuiigit, qnam Nee, Nee. Qiianqiiam 
neutnim ego Dlsjnnctivnm appello, sed copulativum potius negativum.'' — 
Aristarehus Antl-Bentleiamis. Pars secunda. Pag. 13. 

^ Technical terms are not invariably abused to cover tlie 'Kjnorauct 
only of those who employ them. In matters of law, politicks, and 
Government, they are more frequently abused in attempting to impose 



CH. VII.] OP CONJUNCTIONS. 67 

B. — You mean_, tlierij by what you have said, flatly to con- 
tradict Mr. Harris's definition of a Conjunction ; which he says_, 
is — " a Part of Speech devoid of signification itself, but so 
formed as to help signification, by making two or more signi- 
ficant sentences to be one significant sentence.^' 

H. — I have the less scruple to do that, because Mr. Harris 
makes no scruple to contradict himself. For he afterwards 
acknowledges that some of them — "have a kind of obscure 
signification when taken alone ; and appear in Grammar, like 
Zoophytes ^ in nature, a kind of middle Beings of amphibious 
character; which, by sharing the attributes of the higher and 
the lower, conduce to link the whole together.'^ 

Now I suppose it is impossible to convey a Nothing in a more 
ingenious manner. How much superior is this to the oracular 
Saw of another learned author on Language (typified by Shake- 
speare in Sir Topaz^) who, amongst much other intelligence of 
equal importance, tells us with a very solemn face, and ascribes 
it to Plato, that — " Every man that opines, must opine some- 
thing : the subject of opinion therefore is not nothing.^' But 
the fairest way to Lord Monboddo is to give you the whole 
passage. 

" It was not therefore without reason that Plato said that the 
subject of opinion was neither the to ov, or the thing itself, 
nor was it the to /ult) ov, or nothing ; but something betwixt 
these two. This may appear at first sight a little mysterious, 

upon the ignorance of otiiers ; and to cover the injustice and knavery 
of those who employ them. 

•^ These Zoophytes have made a wonderful impression on Lord Mon- 
boddo. I believe (for I surely have not counted them) that he has used 
the allusion at least twenty times in his Progress of Language ; and 
seems to be always hunting after extremes merely for the sake of intro- 
ducing them. But they have been so often placed between two stools, 
that it is no wonder they should at last come to the ground. 

^ " As the old Hermit of Prague, that never saw pen and ink, very 
wittily said to a niece of king Gorboduc, — Thai that is, is : So I heing 
Master Farson, am Master Parson. For what is that^ hut that ? And is, 
but is?'' — Twelfth Nir/ht, act 4. scene 3. 

John Lily's Sir Tophas monhoddizes in the same manner. 

" Sir Tophas. Doest thou not know what a poet is ? 
Epiton. No. 

Sir Tophas. Why, foole, a poet is as much as one should say — a 
poet." — Eiidimion, act 1. scene 3. 



58 OF CONJUNCTIONS. [PART I. 

and difficult to be understood ; but, like other things of that 
kind in Plato, when examined to the bottom, it has a very clear 
meaning, and explains the nature of opinion very well : ^ for, 
as he says, every man that opines, must opine something ; the 
subject of opinion therefore is not nothing. At the same time 
it is not the thing itself, but something betwixt the two.^^ ^ His 

^ " Lucinde. Qu'est-ce que c'est que ce galimatias ? 

Frontin. Ce galimatias ! Yous n'y comprenez done rien ? 

Lucinde. Non, en verite. 

Frontin. Ma foi, ni moi non plus : je vais pouriant vous rexpliquer 
si vous voulez. 

Lucinde. Comment m'expliquer ce que tu ne comprends pas ? 

Frontin. Oh ! Dame, j'ai fait mes etudes, moi." — VAmant de lui- 
meme. {Rotisseau,) scene 13. 

^ Origin and Progress of Language, vol. 1. p. 100. " II possede 
I'antiquite, comme on le pent voir par les belles remarques qu'il a faites. 
Sans liii nous ne scaurions pas que dans la ville d'Athenes les enfans 
pleuroient quand on leur donnoit le fouet. — Nous devons cette decouverte 
a sa profonde erudition." 

But his lordship's philosophical writings are fuR of information, ex- 
planations and observations of equal importance. Vol. ]. p. 136, he 
informs us, that — Porphyiy, the greatest philosopher as well as best writer 
of his age, '* relates that crows and magpies and parrots were taught in 
liis time not only to imitate human speech, but to attend to what was 
told them and to remember it ; and many of them, says he, have learned 
to inform against those whom they saw doing any mischief in the house. 
And he himself tamed a partridge that he found somewhere about Car- 
thage to such a degree, that it not only played and fondled with him, 
but answered him when he spoke to it in a voice different from that in 
which the partridges call one another : but was so well bred, that it 
never made this noise but when it was spoken to. And he maintains, 
that all animals who have sense and memory are capable of reason : and 
this is not only his opinion, but that of the Pythagoreans, the greatest 
philosophers in my opinion that ever existed, next to the masters of their 
master, 1 mean the Egyptian priests. And besides the Pythagoreans, 
Plato, Aristotle, Erapedocles, and Democritus, were of the same opi- 
nion. One thing cannot be denied, that their natures may be very much 
improved by use and instruction, by which they may be made to do 
things that are really wonderful and far exceeding their natural power 
of instinct." — So far we are obliged to the greatest of all philosophers 
that ever existed. And thus far the judgment of the extract can alone 
be called in question. Now for the further confirmation of this doc- 
trine by their illustrious disciple. — " There is a man in England at pre- 
sent, who has practised more upon them and with greater success than 
any body living : " — (I suspect his Lordship means the owner of the 
learned Pig) — " and he says, as I am informed,'' — (Ay, Right, my lord, 
Be cautious how you take an assertion so important as this, upon your 



CH. VII.] OF CONJUNCTIONS. 59 

Lordship, you see, has explained it very clearly ; and no doubt 
must have sweated much to get thus to the bottom. 

-But Mr. Harris has the advantage of a Simile over this 
gentleman : and though Similes^ appear with most beauty and 
propriety in works of imagination, they are frequently found 
most useful to the authors of philosophical treatises : and have 
often helped them out at many a dead lift, by giving them an 
appearance of saying something, when indeed they had nothing 
to say : For Similes are in truth the bladders upon which they 
float; and the Grrammarian sinks at once if he attempts to 
swim without them. 

As a proof of which, let us only examine the present in- 
stance; and, dismissing the Zoophytes, see what intelligence 
we can draw from Mr. Harris concerning the nature of Con- 
junctions. 

First he defines a Word to be a ^' sound significant '^'^ Then 
he defines Conjunctions to be words (i. e. sounds significant) 
^^ devoid of signification.'^ — Afterwards he allows that they 
have — " a kind of signification. '^ 

But this kind of signification is — '^ obscure/' (i. e. a sig- 
nification unknown) : something I suppose (as Chillingworth 
couples them) like a secret Tradition, or a silent Thunder : for 
it amounts to the same thing as a signification which, does not 
signify: an obscure or unknown signification being no signi- 
fication at all. But, not contented with these inconsistencies, 
which to a less learned man would seem sufficient of all con- 
science, Mr. Harris goes further, and adds, that they are a — 

own authority ! Well, He says ? What ?) — " That, if they lived long 
enough, and pains sufficient were taken upon them,"- — (Well, what 
then ?) — " it is iinpossible to say to what lengths some of them might he 
carried. ^^ 

Now if this, and such stuff as this, be Philosophy ; and that too, of 
the greatest philosophers that ever existed ; I do most humbly intreat 
your Lordship, if you still continue obstinate to discard Mr. Locke, that 
I may have my Tom Thumb again. For this philosophy gives to my 
mind as much disgust, though not so much indignation, as your friend 
and admirer Lord Mansfield's law. 

[Were Mr. Tooke now living, he might have a chance of seeing a 
revival of Tom Thumb, if we may judge from some things that have 
lately been said of Mr. Lock£ at Cambridge and elsewhere. — Ed.] 

^ And (page 329) he defines a word to be "a voice articulate, sig- 
nificant by compact." 



60 OF CONJUNCTIONS. [PART I. 

'^ kind of middle beings'' — (he must mean between signification 
and no signification) — " shay^ing the attributes of both'' — (i. e. 
of signification and no signification) and — " conduce to link them 
both'' — (i. e. signification and no signification) "together." 

It would have helped us a little_, if Mr. Harris had here told 
us what that middle state is^ between signification and no sig- 
nification ! ^ What are the attributes of no signification ! And 
how signification and no signification can be linked together ! 

Now all this may, for aught I know, be " read and admired 
as long as there is any taste for fine writing in Britain. ^^ ^ But 

^ If common reason alone was not sufficient to keep Mr. Harris and 
Lord Monboddo from this middle state between the ro ov and the ro fxr) 
ov, and between signification and no signification ; i\ty should at least 
have listened .to what they are better acquainted with, Autliority. 

" '0(Ta de TOiv evavTicov Toiavra ccttiv, wore ev ois 7r€(f)vK€ yiveadai, rj lav Kari]- 
yopeirac, avayKaiov avrcov darepou VTrap^eiv ; — tovtohv ovdev ecrriv ava fiea-ov." 
— Arlstot. Categ. 

" Inter affirmationem et negationem nullum medium existit." — /. C. 
Scaliger, lib. 5. cap. 114. 

[" When a man is conscious that he does no good himself, the next 
thing is to cause others to do some. I may claim some merit this way, 
in hastening this testimonial from your friends above-writing : their love 
to you indeed wants no spur, their ink wants no pen, their pen wants no 
hand, their hand wants no heart, and so forth, after the manner of 
Rabelais ; wJiich is betwixt some meaning and no meaning ; and yet it may 
be said, when present thought and opportunity is wanting, their pens 
want ink, their hands want pens, their hearts want hands, &c., till time, 
place, and conveniency concur to set them a-writing, as at present, a 
sociable meeting, a good dinner, warm fire, and an easy situation do, to 
the joint labour and pleasure of this epistle. — Humble servant, A. Pope." 
— TarnelVs Works?\ 

^ " The truly philosophical language of my worthy and learned friend 
Mr. Harris, the author of Hermes, a work that will be read and admired 
as long as there is any taste for philosophy and fine writing in Britain." 
— Grig, and Prog, of Language, vol. 1. p. 8. 

" But I can hardly have the same indulgence for the philosopher, 
especially one who pretended, like Mr. Locke, to be so attentive an 
observer of what passed in his own mind, and has written a whole book 
upon the subject. — If Mr. Locke would have taken the trouble to study 
what had been discovered in this matter by tlie antients, and had not 
resolved to have the merit of inventing himself a whole system of phi- 
losophy, he would have known that every material object is composed 
o{ matter and/or;^." — Id. vol. 1. p. 38. 

"Mr. Locke wrote at a time when the old philosophy, I mean the 
scholastic philosophy, was generally run down and despised, but no 
other come in its place. In that situation, being naturally an acute man, 



CH. VII.J OF CONJUNCTIONS. 61 

with such unlearned and vulgar philosophers as Mr. Locke and 
his disciples, who seek not Taste and elegance, but truth and 
common sense in philosophical subjects, I believe it will never 
pass as a "perfect Example of Analysis ; '^ nor bear away the 
palm for " acuteness of investigation and perspicuity of explica- 
tion'^ For, separated from the Fine Writing, (which however 
I can no where find in the book) thus is the Conjunction ex- 
plained by Mr. Harris. — A sound significant devoid of signi- 
fication. 

Having at the same time a kind of obscure signification ; 

And yet having neither signification nor no signification ; 

But a middle something between signification and no signi- 
fication. 

Sharing the attributes both of signification and no significa- 
tion; 

And linking signification and no signification together. 

If others, of a more elegant Taste for Fine Writing, are able 
to receive either pleasure or instruction from such truly philo- 
sophical language^ I shall neither dispute with them nor envy 



and not a bad writer, it was no wonder that his Essay met with great 
applause, and was thought to contain wonderful discoveries. And I must 
allow that [ think it was difficult for any man, without the assistance of 
books, or of the conversation of men more learned than himself, to go 
further in the philosophy of mind than he has done. But now that Mr. 
Harris has opened to us the treasures of Greek philosophy, to consider 
Mr. Locke still as a standard book of philosophy, would be, to use an 
antient comparison, continuing to feed on acorns after corn was dis- 
covered." — Or. and Pr. of Lang. vol. 1. p. 53. 

" It was the misfortune of us in the western parts of Europe, tliat 
after we had learned Greek, and got some taste of the Greek philosophy, 
we immediately set up as masters ourselves, and would needs be invent- 
ors in philosophy, instead of humble scholars of the antient masters. 
In this way Descartes philosophized in Erance, Mr. Hobbes and Mr. 
Locke in England, and many since their time of less note. I would 
fain hope, if the indolence and dissipation that prevail so generally in 
this age would allow me to think so well of it, that Mr. Harris would 
put a stop to this method of p*liilosophizing without the assistance of 
the antients, and revive the genuine Greek philosophy among us." — Id. 
vol. 1. page 54. 

^ " Clarus ob obscuram linguam magis inter inanes 

Quamde gravels inter Graios, qui vera requirunt. 

Omnia enim stolidi magis admirantur amantque 

Inversis quae sub verbis latitantia cernunt : 



62 OF CONJUNCTIONS. [PART I. 

them : But can only deplore the dullness of my own appre- 
hension, who, notwithstanding the great authors quoted in 
Mr. Harris's treatise, and the great authors who recomnjend 
it, cannot help considering this ^' perfect example of analysis,^' 
as — An improved compilation of almost all the errors which 
Grammarians have been accumulating from the time of Ari- 
stotle down to our present days, of technical and learned 
affectation.^ 

B, — I am afraid, my good friend, you still carry with you 
your old humour in politics, though your subject is now dif- 
ferent. You speak too sharply for Philosophy. Come, Confess 
the truth. Are not you against Authority, because Authority is 
against you ? And does not your spleen to Mr. Harris arise 
principally from his having taken care to fortify his opinions in 
a manner in which, from your singularity, you cannot ? 

H, — I hope you know my disposition better. And I am 
persuaded that I owe your long and steady friendship to me, to 
the conviction which an early experience in private life afforded 
you, that — Neminem libenter nominem, nisi ut laudem; sed 
nee peccata reprehenderem, nisi ut aliis prodessem. — Indeed 
you have borne your testimony for me in very trying situations, 
where few besides yourself would have ventured so much ho- 
nesty. At the same time, I confess, I should disdain to handle 
any useful truth daintily, as if I feared lest it should sting me ; 
and to employ a philosophical inquiry as a vehicle for interested 
or cowardly adulation. 

I protest to you, my notions of Language were formed be- 
fore I could account etymologically for any one of the words 



Veraqiie constituunt, quae beUe tangere possunt 
Aures, et lepido quae sunt fucata sonore." 

Luc^'etius, Kb. 1. 640. 
^ I must however do Mr. Harris and Dr. Lowth the justice to acknow- 
ledge, that the Hermes of the former has been received with universal 
approbation both at home and abroad j and has been quoted as unde- 
niable authority on the subject by the learned of all countries. For 
which however I can easily account ; not by supposing that its doctrine 
gave any more satisfaction to their minds who quoted it than to mine ; 
but because, as Judges shelter their knavery by precedents, so do scholars 
their ignorance by authority : and when they cannot reason, it is safer and 
less disgraceful to repeat that nonsense at second hand, wliich they would 
be ashamed to give originally as their own. 



CH. VII.] OF CONJUNCTIONS. 63 

in question, and before I was in the least acquainted with the 
opinions of others. I addressed myself to an inquiry into their 
opinions with all the diffidence of conscious iguorance; and, so 
far from spurning authority, was disposed to admit of half an 
argument from a great name. So that it is not my fault, if I 
am forced to carry instead of following: the lantern : but at all 
events it is better than walking in total darkness. 

And yet, though I believe I differ from all the accounts 
which have hitherto been given of Language, I am not so much 
without authority as you may imagine. Mr. Harris himself 
and all the Grammarians whom he has, and whom (though 
using their words) he has not quoted, are my authorities. 
Their own doubts, their difficulties, their dissatisfaction, their 
contradictions, their obscurity on all these points are my au- 
thorities against them : ^ for their system and their difficulties 
vanish together. Indeed unless, with Mr. Harris, I had been 

^ "Profecto in Grammaticorum prope omnium commentis, quae 
aypoiKof, immensiim extoUunt, pene ovdev vyus ; cum paginse singulae saepe 
plures contineant eiTores, quam Sicinius ille Dentatus vulnera toto habuit 
corpore." — G. J. Vossii AristarcMs, lib. 3. cap 2. 

Lxxiv. " Capienda etiam sunt signa ex incrementis et progressibus 
philosophiarum et scientiarum. Quse enim in natura fundata sunt, 
crescunt et augentur : quEe autem in opinione, variantur ; non aiigentur. 
Itaqne si istse doctrinse plane, instar plantse, a stirpibus suis revulsae non 
assent, sed utero naturae adhsererent, atque ab eadem alerentur, id minime 
eventunim fuisset quod per annos bis miUe jam fieri videmus : nempe, ut 
scientise suis hsereant vestigiis, et ■ in eodem fere statu maneant, neque 
augmentum aliquod memorabile sumpserint." 

Lxxv. " Etiam aliud signum capiendum est (si modo signi appellatio 
huic competat; cum potius testimonium sit, atque adeo testimoniorum 
omnium validissimum); hoc est, propria confessio auctorum quos homines 
nunc sequuntur. Nam et illi, qui tanta fiducia de rebus pronunciant, 
tamen per intervalla cum ad se redeunt, ad querimonias de natura 
subtilitate, reriim ohscuritate, humani ingenii infirmitate se convertunt. 
Hoc vero si simpHciter fieret, alios fortasse qui sunt timidiores ab ulte- 
riori inquisitione deterrere, alios vero qui sunt ingenio alacriori et magis 
fidenti ad ulteriorem progressum acuere et incitare possit. Verum non 
satis illis est de se confiteri, sed quicquid sibi ipsis aut magistris suis 
incognitum aut intactum fuerit, id extra terminos possibilis ponunt : et 
tanquam ex arte, cognitu aut factu impossibile pronunciant : Summa 
superbia et invidia suonim inventorum infirmitatem, in naturae ipsius 
calumniam et aliorum omnium desperationem vertentes. Hinc schola 
Academiae novae, quae Acatalepsiam ex professo tenuit, et homines ad 
sempitemas tenebras daranavit." — Novum Organum. 



64 OF CONJUNCTIONS. [PART I, 

repeating what others have written, it is impossible I should 
quote any direct authorities for my own manner of explanation. 
But let us hear Wilkins, whose industry deserved to have been 
better employed, and his perseverance better rewarded with 
discovery ; let us hear what he says. 

— ^'^ According to the true philosophy of speech, I cannot 
conceive this kind of words '^ (he speaks of Adverbs and Con- 
junctions) ^*^to be properly a distinct part of speech, as they 
are commonly called. But until they can be distributed into 
their proper places, I have so far complied with the Grammars 
of instituted languages, as to place them here together.^^ — And 
again, 

" For the accurate effecting of this [i. e. a real character] it 
would be necessary that the theory itself [i. e. of language] 
upon which such a design were to be founded, should be exactly 
suited to the nature of things. But upon supposal that tliis 
theory [viz. of language] is defective, either as to the fulness 
or the order of it ; this must needs add much perplexity to any 
such attempt, and render it imperfect. And that this is the 
case with that common theory already received, need not much 
be doubted. ^^ 

It appears evidently therefore that Wilkins (to whom Mr. 
Locke was much indebted) was well convinced that all the 
accounts hitherto given of Language were erroneous. And in 
fact, the languages which are commonly used throughout the 
world, are much more simple and easy, convenient and philo- 
sophical, than Wilkins's scheme for a real character ; or than 
any other scheme that has been at any other time imagined or 
proposed for the purpose. 

Mr. Lockers dissatisfaction with all the accounts which he 
had seen, is too well known to need repetition. 

Sanctius rescued quod particularly from the number of these 
mysterious Conjunctions, though he left ut amongst them. 

And Servius, Scioppius, G. J. Vossius, Perizonius, and others, 
have explained and displaced many other supposed Adverbs and 
Conjunctions. 

Skinner (though I knew it not previously) had accounted 
for IF before me, and in the same manner ; which, though so 
palpaljlc. Lye confirms and compliments. Even S. Johnson, 



CH. VII.] OF CONJUNCTIONS. 65 

though mistakenly, has attempted and ; and would find no 
difficulty with therefore. 

In short, there is not such a thing as a Conjunction in Any 
Language, which may not, by a skilful Herald, be traced home 
to its own family and origin ; without having recourse to con- 
tradiction and mystery with Mr. Harris : or, with Mr. Locke, 
cleaving open the head of man, to give it such a birth as 
Minerva^s from the brain of Jupiter. 

B. — Call you this authority in your favour, — when the full 
stream and current sets the other way, and only some little 
brook or rivulet runs with you ? You know very well that all 
the authorities which you have alleged, except Wilkins, are 
upon the whole against you. "For though they have explained 
the meaning, and traced the derivation of many Adverbs and 
Conjunctions; yet (except Sanctius in the particular instance 
of QUOD, — whose conjunctive use in Latin he too strenuously 
denies) they all acknowledge them still to be Adverbs or Con- 
junctions. It is true, they distinguish them by the title of 
reperta or usurpata. But they at the same time acknowledge 
(indeed the very distinction itself is an acknowledgment) that 
there are others which are real, primigenia, nativa, pura. 
' H. — True. Because there are some, of whose origin they 
were totally ignorant. But has any Philosopher or Grammarian 
ever yet told us what a real, original, native, pure Adverb 
or Conjunction is ? or which of these Conjunctions of Sen- 
tences are so ? Whenever that is done, in any language, I 
may venture to promise you that I will show those likewise to 
be repertas and usarpatas, as well as the rest. And till then 
I shall take no more trouble about them. I shall only add^ 
that though Abbreviation and corruption are always busiest 
with the words which are most frequently in use ; yet the words 
most frequently used are least liable to be totally laid aside. 
And -therefore they are often retained, — (I mean that branch 
of them which is most frequently used) — when most of the 
other words (and even the other branches of these retained 
words) are, by various changes and accidents, quite lost to a 
Language. Hence the difficulty of accounting for them. 
And hence (because only one branch of each of these decli- 
nable words is retained in a language) arises the notion of their 
being indeclinable ; and a separate sort of words, or Part of 



66 OF CONJUNCTIONS. [PART I. 

Speech by themselves. But that they are not indeclinable, 
is sufficiently evident by what I have already said. For Tiiy, 
TCn, &c. certainly could not be called indeclinable, when all 
the other branches of those Verbs, of which they are the 
regular Imperatives_, were likewise in use. And that the words 
IF, AN, &c. (which still retain their original signification, 
and are used in the very same manner and for the same pur- 
pose as formerly) should now be called indeclinable, proceeds 
merely from the ignorance of tbose who could not account for 
them ; and who therefore, with Mr. Harris, were driven to say 
that they have neither meaning nor inflection : whilst notwith- 
standing they were still forced to acknowledge (either directly, 
or by giving them different titles of conditional, adversative, 
&c.) that they have a " kind of obscure meaning.'' ^ 

How much more candid and ingenuous would it have been, 
to have owned fairly that they did not understand the nature 
of these Conjunctions ; and, instead of wrapping it up in 
mystery, to have exhorted and encouraged others to a further 
search ! 

B. — You are not the first person who has been misled by 
a fanciful etymology. Take heed that your derivations be not 
of the same ridiculous cast with theirs who deduced Constan- 
tinople from Constantine the noble, — Breeches from bear-riches, 
— Donna from dono, — Honour from hon and aurum,—2in.dL King 
Pepin from oairep.^ 

•^ " Et quelle idee est excitee dans I'esprit en entendant prononcer 
les particules et, aussi ? On voit bien que ces mots sio-nifient une 
espece de connexion ; mais quelque peine qu'on se donnat a decrire 
cette connexion, on se serviroit d'autant d'autres mots, dont la signifi- 
cation seroit aussi difficile a expliqaer : et voulant expliquer la signifi- 
cation de la particule et, je me servirois plusienrs fois de cette meme 
particule." — Lettres ci une Princesse d' Allemagne, by Eider, letter 101. 

^ " Then this Constantyne removed the emperyall see unto his cytye 
of Constantyne the noble : and there for the more partye kepte his em- 
peryall honourc; and other emperours in lyke wyse after hym. By 
reason whereof the emperours were longe after called emperours of 
Constantyne noble" — Fabians Citron, ch. 69. 
" Hed. But why Breeches now ? 
Tha. Breeches, quasi bear-riches; when a gallant bears all his 
riches in his breeches." — B, Jonson, Cynthia s Revels^ act 4. 
scene 3. 
" Placano i Doni il ciel ; placan 1' inferno. 
E pur lion sou le Donne 



CH. VII.] OF CONJUNCTIONS. 67 

H. — If I have been misled, it most certainly is not by Ety- 
mology : of whicb I confess myself to have been sbamefuUy 
ignorant at the time when these my notions of language were 
first formed. Though even that previous ignorance is now a 
circumstance which confirms, me much in my opinion concern- 
ing these Conjunctions : For I knew not even the character of 
the language from which my particular proofs of the English 
conjunctions were to be drawn. And (notwithstanding Lord 
Monboddo's discouraging Sneer ^) it was general reasoning a 

Men avare cbe il cielo, 
Piu crude elie 1' inferno. 
II Don, credimi, il Dono 
Gran ministro d' amore, anzi tiranno 
Egli e, che a suo voler impetra e spetra. 
• Non sai tu cio ch' Elpino, 
II saggio Elpino dicea ? 
Che fin cola nella primiera etade, 
Quand' anco semplicetti 
Non sapean favellare 

Che d' un linguaggio sol la lingua e '1 core, 
AUor le amanti Donne altra canzona 
Non s' udivan cantar che — Dona, Dona. 
Quindi 1' enne addoppiando 

Perche non basta un Don, — Donn^ fu delta." — Guidobaldo de' 
Bonarelli. 

" On connoit le jeu de mots A' Owen, assez mauvais, mais qui ren- 
ferme un grand sens : 

Divitias et opes, Hon lingua Hebrsea vocavit : 

Gallica gens, Aurum-or ; indeque venit Honor." — Mirabeau, 
Essai sur le Despotume. 

"'Oa-nep — ^nep — oTrep — Diaper — Napkin — Nipkin — 

Pipkin — Pippin-king — King Pepin." 

I forget my meny author of this etymology ; but it is altogether as 
plausible as even Meyiage's derivation of chez from Apud. 

^ " Now as I am not able from Theory merely, and a priori, to form 
the idea of a perfect language, I have been obliged to seek for it in the 
study of the Greek. — What men of superior Genius may do in such 
speculations, I cannot tell ; but I know well that ordinary men, with- 
out the study of some model of the kind, would be as unable to con- 
ceive the idea of a perfect language, as to form a high taste in other 
arts, such as sculpture and painting, without having seen the best works 
of those kinds that are to be found. — It would be doing injustice to 
those superior minds wJio Jiave in themselves the standard of perfection in 
all the Arts, to judge of. them by myself; but I am confident that my 
idea of perfection in language would have been ridiculously imperfect, 



G8 OF CONJUNCTIONS. [PART I. 

priori J that led me to the particular instances ; not particular 
instances to the general reasoning. This Etymology, against 
whose fascination you would have me guard myself, did not 
occur to me till many years after my system was settled : and 
it occurred to me suddenly, in this manner ; — " If my reason- 
ing concerning these conjunctions is well founded, there must 
then be in the original language from which the English (and 
so of all other languages) is derived, literally such and such 
words bearing precisely such and such significations/' — I was 
the more pleased with this suggestion, because I was entirely 
ignorant even of the Anglo-Saxon and Gothic characters : and 
the experiment presented to me a mean, either of disabusing 
myself from error (which I greatly feared) ; or of obtaining a 
confirmation sufficiently strong to encourage me to believe 
(what every man knowing any thing of human nature jvill 
always be very backward in believing of himself), that I had 
really made a discovery. For, if upon trial I should find in an 
unknown language precisely those very words both in sound, 
and signification, and application, which in my perfect igno- 
rance I had foretold ; what must I conclude, but either that 
some Daemon had maliciously inspired me with the spirit of 
true prophecy in order the more deeply to deceive me ; or that 
my reasoning on the nature of language was not fantastical ? 
The event was beyond my expectation : for I instantly found, 



if I had known • no "othei* language than the modern languages of 
Europe." — Origin and Progress of Language, vol. 2. p. 183. 

Eead this, Mr. Burgess, and then complain of illiberality to Lord 
Monboddo : who places himself ansatus in cathedra, and thus treats all 
other men in advance. Whoever, after his lordship, shall dare to 
reason on this subject a priori, must assume then, it seems, — to have 
in his own superior mind the standard of perfection in All the Arts ! — 
Do you, Mr. Burgess, acquiesce to this condition? If it were possible 
(which I am very far from believing) that the same sentiments should 
pervade any considerable part of the very learned and respectable body 
to which you belong ; I should be sorrowfully compelled to join in the 
exclamation, — ! aurita Arcadia pecorat qui, Eomse, Juijus cncidi vocem, 
veluti lusciniolfs melos, in anres admittere snstinetis ! And perhaps Mr. 
Burgess himself may have reason hereafter to regret, that (with all his 
real or pretended admiration of Lord Monboddo's writings) he neglected 
to avail himself of the only useful lesson to be drawn from them : viz. 
To be at least as well bred as Porphj7'y's partridge ; and to have forborne 
his noise, until he was himself spoken to. 



CH. VII.] OF CONJUNCTIONS. 69 

upon trials all my predictions verified. This lias made me 
presumptuous enough to assert it universally. Besides that I 
have since traced these supposed unmeaning^ indeclinable 
Conjunctions with the same success in many other languages 
besides the English. And because I know that the generality 
of minds receive conviction more easily from a number of par- 
ticular instances, than from the surer but more abstracted 
arguments of general proof; if a multiplicity of uncommon 
avocations and engagements (arising from a very peculiar 
situation) had not prevented me, I should long before this have 
found time enough from my other pursuits and from my en- 
joyments (amongst which idleness is not the smallest) to have 
shown clearly and satisfactorily the origin and precise meaning 
of each of these pretended unmeaning, indeclinable Conjunctions, 
at least in all the dead and living languages of Europe. 

B. — Men talk very safely of what they may do, and what 
they might have done. But, though present professions usually 
outweigh past proofs with the people, they have never yet 
passed current with philosophers. If therefore you would 
biing me over to your opinion, and embolden me to quit the 
beaten path with you, you must go much beyond the example 
of Henry Stephens, which was considered by Mer. Casaubon 
as the ne plus ultra on this subject,^ and rnust do what Wilkins 
required before he would venture to differ from the Grammars 
of instituted languages; that is, you must distribute all our 
English Conjunctions at least into their proper places. And if 
it should seem unreasonable in me thus to impose upon you a 
task which — " no man, however learned or sagacious, has yet 
been able to perform ; " ^ — you must thank yourself for it, and 

^ " Henricus Stephanus (author immortalis operis, quod Thesaurus 
Lingua Grsecas indigitavit) ita omnes oiationis particulas {quamm 
quanta in omni lingua diff,cilioi\ ianto utilior observalio), omnes idiotis- 
mos excussit, emit, explicavit, similia cum similibus comparavit, ut 
exemplum quidem in hoc genere aliis ad imitandum reliquerit absolu- 
tissimum ; sed quod pauci sint assecuturi." — Mer. Cos. de Lingua Sax-, 
onica. 

^ " The Particles are, among all nations, applied with so great 
latitude, that they are not easily reducible under any regular scheme 
of explication : tins difficulty is not less, nor perhaps greater, in English 
than in other languages. I have laboured them with diligence, 1 hop^j 
with success : such at least as can be expected in a task which na 



70 



OF CONJUNCTIONS. 



[part I. 



the peremptory, roundness of your assertion. Besides_, I do 
really think that after you have professed so much of all the 
languages of Europe, I may fairly expect you to perform a little 
in your own. 

H. — If it must be so, thus then : I say that 



If 


"^ 




CTJIXL f^lr- 




^ Dijzan 


To Give. 


An 




3:n ^o.- 




^nan 


To Grant. 


Unless 




Onlej' (p^^ 




Onlej-an 


To Dismiss 


Eke 




Gac --- 


to 


Gaoan 


To Add. 


Yet 


CO 


Iret: :■ ' ' ' 


1 


Iretan 


To Get. 


Still 


'-+2 


Scell^'^- 




Scellan 


To Put. 


Else 




^lef oJJ-^ 


> 


^lej-an 


To Dismiss 


Tho' 


!-^ 


Daj: xt^f 




Dajiian 


1 


or 


<D 


or 


en 


or 


[■ To Allow. 


Though 


•5 


Dap5 • ^ 


P-i 


Dajzijan 


3 


But 




Bofc • 


1 


Botan 


To Boot. 


But 




Be-ucan ;- >y 


"-^ 


Beon-utan 


To Be-out. 


Without 




PypS-utan i,. 


- 


Pyp^an-ucan To Be-out. 


And 




3!n-ab a^v-a^ 


.:^^nan-ab 


r Dai^e con- 
\ geriem. 


Lest is the past participle Lej-eb of Lep an, To Dismiss. 


f Si^^an -^ 








Syne 






Since - 


Seanb-ej- 
Si^^e 


■ is the participle of Seon, To See. 




. s. 


or 


. 











That is the Article or Pronoun Dae. 

These, I apprehend, are the only Conjunctions in our lan- 
guage which can cause any difficulty ; and it would be imper- 
tinent in me to explain such as — Be so.(*) Be it. Albeit. (*) 



man, however learned or sagacious, 
Pi'ef. to S. JohmorC8 Diet. 



has yet been able to perform." — 



(') " Set forth (quod she) and tell me how. 
Shew me thy sekenes euery dele. 
Madame, that can I do wele : 
Be so my lyfe thereto woll laste." 

Cower y lib. 1. 



fol. 8. 



col. 1. 



ch. vii.] of conjunctions. 71 

Albeit so. ("") Set. {^) Notwithstanding. Nevertheless. 
Save that. Saving that. Except that. Excepting that. 

" Tor these craftes (as I finde) 
A man male do by waie of kinde : 
Be so it be to good entent." 

Gotoer, Hb. 5. fol. 134. p. 2. col. 1. 
" For suche men that ben vilayns 
The lawe in suche a wise ordeineth, 
That what man to the lawe pleyneth, 
Be so the judge stande upright. 
He shall be serued of his right." 

Gowe?; lib. 7. fol. 159. p. 1. col. 1. 
" The mast to-brake, the sayle to-roofe, 
The ship upon the wawes droofe, 
Till that thei see the londes coste. 
Tho made a vowe the leste and moste 
Be so thei mighten come alonde." 

Gotce7\ Hb. 8. fol. 177. p. 1. col. 2. 
(*•) " Satume anon, to stynten stryfe and drede, 
Al be it that it be agayne his kynde, 
Of all this strife he can remedy fynde." 

Chaucer, KnygMes Tale, fol. 8. p. 2. col. 1. 
" The quhUk Juno nowthir lang dayis nor geris. 
Nor nane diuyne saciifice may appeis ; 
Sche restis neuir, nor may sche leif at eis. 
Albeit the power and charge of Jupiter 
Eesistis sche wat, and fatis war hir contrare." 

Douglas, 5th booke, p. 154. 
" Freynd serly not, na cause is to compleyne. 
Albeit thy wit grete god may not atteyne." 

Douglas, Prol. to 10th booke, p. 309. 

(*) "Another remedy is that a man eschewe the companye of hem 

by whiche he douteth to be tempted : for albeit so that the dede is 

wythstonde, yet is there greate temptacyon." — Chaucer, Persons Tale, fol. 

115. p. 2. col. 2. 

" Al be it so that of your pride and high presumpcion and folye, ye 
haue misborne you, yet for as mikell as 1 se and beholde your greate 
humilyte, it constrayneth me to do you grace and mercy." — Tale of 
Chaucer, fol. 83. p. 1. col. 1. 

(•*) " Bot sen I am compellid the to translait, 
And not onlie of my enrage, God wate, 
Durst I interprise sic outragious folic, 
Quhare I offend, the less reprefe serf I, 
And that je knaw at quhais instance I tuke 
For to translate this maist excellent buke, 
I mene Virgillis volum maist excellent. 
Set this my werk full febill be of rent." 

Douglas, Pre/, p. 4, 



72 OP CONJUNCTIONS. [PART I. 

Bating that. If case. (') In case. (') Put case, f) Set 
CASE. (*) I POSE. (') Because. To wit. Forseeing that. (^) 



" Sic plesand wordes carpand, he has forth brocht, 
Sett his mynd troublit mony greuous thocht." 

Douglas, 1st booke, p. 19. 
" Betwix gude hope and drede in doute they stude, 
Quhither thay war lewand, or tholit extreme dede al, 
Thay ansuerit not, set thay oft plene and cal." 

Douglas, 1st booke, p. 19. 
" And SET it be not louable nor semely thocht 
To punys ane woman, but schamefuU hir to sla, 
Na victory, but lak following alsa, 
git netheles I aucht louit to be, 
Vengeaunce to take on hir deseruis to de," 

Douglas, 2d booke, p. 58. 
'* Virgin is fuU of sentence ouer all quhare, 
His hie knawlege he schawls, that euery sorte 
Of his clausis comprehend sic sentence, 
Thare bene thereof, set thou think this but sporte, 
Made grete ragmentis of hie intelligence." 

Douglas, Prol. to 6th booke, p. 158. 
" To name the God, that war ane manifest lee, 
Is but ane God, makar of euery thing : 
Set thou to Vulcane haue ful grete resembling." 

Douglas, Prol. to 6th booke, p. 161. 
" Thare suld na knicht rede but ane knichtly tale. 
Quhat forcis him the bussart on the brere ? 
Set wele him semes the falcone heroner." 

Douglas, Prol. to 9th booke, p. 271. 
*' Turnus, behald on cais reuoluit the day. 
And of his fre wyl sendis the perfay 
Sic auantage and oportunite, 
And bet thou wald half askit it, quod sche, 
There was neuer ane of al the goddis ding 
Quhilk durst have the promittit sic ane thing." 

Douglas, 9th booke, p. 273. 
'* Set our nature God has to him unyte, 
His godhede incommyxt remanis perfite." 

Douglas, Prol. to 10th booke, p. 308. 
" Angellis, scheiphardis, and kingis thy godhede kend, 
Set thou in crib betuix twa beistis was laid." 

Douglas, Prol. to 10th booke, p. 310. 
" Drances, forsoith, quod he, euer has thou bene 
Large and to mekil of speche, as well is sene, 
Bot not with wourdis suld the court be fyllyt. 
Set thou be grete tharin, and ful euill wyllit." 

Douglas, llth booke, p. 376. 



i 



CH. VII.] OF CONJUNCTIONS. 73 

Foreseen that. ('^) Provided that. Being that, &c. Which 
are evident at first sight. 



" I put the cais set the Etholianis 
List not to cum in our help nor supple ; 
git than the bald Messapus wele wylle." 

Douglas, 11th booke, p. 378. 
*' With stout curage agane him wend I wiU, 
Thocht he in proues pas the grete Achill, 
Or SET in cais sic armour he weris as he 
Wrocht be the handis of God Yiilcauus sle." 

Douglas, 11th booke, p. 378. 
" Bot Juno tho doun from the hicht, I wys, 
Of the mountane that Albane clepyt is 
Now in our dayis (set then this hillis down 
Had nouther name, honour, nor renowne) 
Scho did behald amyd the feildis plane." 

Douglas, 13th booke, p. 411. 
" Tor SET we preis us fast to speike out braid, 
Ne voce, nor wourdis folio wis nocht is said." 

Douglas, 12th booke, p. 446. 
"And SET that empty be my brane and dull, 
I haue translatit ane volume wounderfuU." 

Douglas, 13th booke, p. 483. 
*' Fra tyme 1 thareto set my pen to wryte. 
It was compilyt in auchtene monethis space : 
Set 1 fell syith sic twa monethis in fere 
Wrate neuir ane wourd, nor micht the volume stere." 

Douglas, p. 484. 
(•) " Saufe onely that I crie and bidde, 

I am in tristresse all amidde." — Gower, lib. 4. fol. 82. p. 2. col. 1. 

"Almoste ryght in the same ^\dse the phisiciens auswerd, Saue 
that they sayden a fewe wordes more." — Tale of Chaucer, fol. 74. p. 1. 
col. 2. 

" Tyl she gan asken him ho we Hector ferde 
That was the townes wal, and Grekes yerde. 
Ful wel I thanke it God, sayde Pandarus, 
Saue in his arme he hath a lytic wounde." 

Chaucer, 2d booke of Troylus, fol. 164. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Behynd thame for uptaking quhare it lay 
Mony bricht armoure rychely dycht thay left, 
Sauf that Eurialus with him tursit away 
The riall trapouris, and mychty patrellis gay." 

Douglas, 9th booke, p. 288. 
" Bot al this time I bid na mare, I wys, 
Saif that this wensche, this vengeabil pest or traik. 
Be bet doun dede by my wound and scharp straik." 

Douglas, 11th booke, p. 393. 



74 OF CONJUNCTIONS. [PART 






B. — Well. Whether you are right or wrong in your con- 
jectures concerning Conjunctions, I acknowledge that this is 



" All the air a solemn stillness holds ; 
Save that from yonder ivy-mantled bower 
The moping owl does to the moon complain." — Gray's Elegy. 
f ) " I do not like these paper-squibs, good master, they may undo 
your store — I mean of credit, and fire your arsenall ; if case you do not 
in time make good those outer works, your pockets." — B. Jo?ison, Staple 
of News, act 1. scene 3. 
Chaucer also uses if cage. 

(*) "The dignite of king John wold have distroyed al Englande, 
therfore mokel wisedome and goodnes both, nedeth in a person, the 
malyce in dignite slyly to bridell, and with a good byt of arest to with- 
draw, IN CASE it wold praunce otherwise than it shuld." — Chaucer, Tes- 
tament of Zone, 2d boke, fol. 317. p. 3. col. 1. 

" Forsoith, IN CAis the auenture of battal 
Had bene doutsum ; wald God it war assale." 

Botiglas, 4th booke, p. 121. 
(^) " And PUT THE CAis that I may not optene 
Trom Latyne land thaim to expell all clene, 
git at leist thare may fall stop or delay 
In sa grete materis for ane gere or t way." 

Douglas, 7th booke, p. 217. 
Put case, though now out of fashion, was frequently used by Chil- 
lingworth and other good authors. 

" Put the case the Pope, for a reward of your service done him in 
writing this book, had given you the honour and means of a cardinal, 
would you not have professed, that you have not merited such a reward? " 
— Chillingworth, chap. 4. p. 211. § 36. 

(') " He is worthy to lose his priuylege, that misuseth the might and 
power that is giuen hym. And I sette case ye might enioyne hem 
that payne by right and lawe, whiche I trowe ye may not do : I saye ye 
might not put it to execution." — Tale of Chaucer, fol. 82. p. 2. col. 2. 

" Yet sette I CASE ye haue lycence for to venge you, I saye that there 
ben full many thinges that shall restrayne you of vengeaunce takyng." — 
Ibid. fol. 79. p. 2. col. 1. 

C*) " Auauntour and a Iyer, al is one. 

As thus. I POSE a woman graunt me 

Her loue, and sayth that other wol she none. 

And I am sworne to holden it secre, 

And after I tel it two or thre ; 

I wys I am auauntom* at the leest 

And Iyer eke, for I breke my beheest." 

Chaucer, 3d boke of Troylus, fol. 174. p. 1. col. 2. 
" Sone after this, she to him gan rowne. 
And asked him if Troylus were there : 
He swore her nay, for he was out of towne, 



:H. VII.] OF CONJUNCTIONS. 75 

:oming to the point : and is fairer than shuffling them over 
unnoticed, as the greater part of grammarians have done; or 
than repeating after others, that they are not themselves any 
parts of language, but only such accessaries as salt is to meat, 
or water to bread ; or that they are the mere edging or sauce 
of language ; or that they are like the handles to cups, or plumes 
to helmets, or binding to books, or harness for horses ; or that 
they are pegs and nails and nerves and joints, and ligaments 
and glue, and pitch and lime, and mortar, and so forth.^ In 

And sayd, Nece : I pose that he were there 
You durst neuer haue the more feere." 

Chaucer, 3d boke of Troylus, fol. 175. p. 2. col. 1. 

(') " It may be ordered that ii or iii of our own shippes do see the 
sayde Frenche soldiers wafted to the coast of France ; forseing that our 
sayd shippes enter no hauen there." — Queen Elizabeth to Sir W. Cecil 
and Br. Wotton, Lodge's Illustrations, vol. 1. p. 339. 

C") " Whan he made any ordinary judges, advocates or proctoures, 
he caused them to be openly named, requirynge the people and gyvynge 
them courage, if there were cause to accuse them, to prove the cryme by 
open wytnesse : foresene if they dyd not suf&ciently prove it, and that 
it semed to be maliciouse detraction, the accusour shulde forthwith be 
beheaded." — Sir T. Elliott, Image of Governaunce, chap. 17. 

^ " Pour quoy est-ce que Platon dit, que I'oraison est temperee de 
noms et de verbes ? — j\tais advisons que nous ne prenions autrement les 
paroles de Platon que comme il les a dittes : car il a dit que I'oraison 
estoit temperee Be ces deux parties, non Far ces deux parties ; que 
nous ne facions la faulte que feroit celuy qui calomnieroit un autre 
pour avoir dit, que un oignement seroit compose de cire et de galba- 
num, alleguant qu'il auroit obmis a dire le feu et le vase, sans lesquels 
on ne s^auroit mesler lesdites drogues : aussi semblablement si nous le 
reprenions pour autant qu'il auroit obmis a dire les conjonctions, les 
prepositions, et autres telles parties. Car le parler et I'oraison n'est 
compose Be ces parties la, mais Par icelles, et non sans elles. Car 
comme celuy qui prononceroit battre, ou estre battu; ou d'ailleurs 
Socrates et Pythagoras, encore donneroit-il aucunement a entendi'e et a 
penser quelque chose : mais celuy qui profereroit Car ou Be simplement 
et seulement, on ne pourroit imaginer qu'il entendist aucune chose ny 
aucun corps, ains s'il n'y a quelques autres paroles qui soient proferees 
quant et quant, elles ressembleront a des sons et des bruits vains sans 
aucune signification ; d'autant que ny a par elles ny avec d'autres sem- 
blablcs, elles ne peuvent rien signifier. Mais a fin que nous conjoignons 
ou meslions et assemblions tout en un, nous y adjoustons des preposi- 
tions, conjonctions, et articles, voulans en faire un corps de tout. — 
Comment done pourra dire quelqu'un, ces parties-la ne servent-elles de 
rien a I'oraison ? Quant ti moy, je tiens qu'elles y servent autant comme 
le Sel a la viande, et Veau a faire le Pain. Evcnus souloit dire que le 



76 OF CONJUNCTIONS. [PART I. 

which kind of pretty similies Philosophers and Grammarians ' 
seem to have vied with one another; and have often endea- 
voured to amuse their readers and cover their own ignorance, by- 
very learnedly disputing the propriety of the similie, instead 
of explaining the nature of the Conjunction. 

But, pi'ay, have you any authority for the derivation of these 
words ? Are not all former etymologists against you ? 

H. — Except in if, and but (in one of its meanings), I be- 
lieve they are all against me. But I am persuaded that all 
future etymologists, and perhaps some philosophers, will ac- 

Feu estoit la meilleure Saulse du Monde ; aussi sont ces Parties I'assai- 
sonnement de nosire langage, ne plus lie moins que le feu et le Sel cles 3 
breuvages et viandes, doiit nous ne nous sgaurions passer ; excepte que ' 
nostre parler n'en a pas toujours necessairement a faire : comme Ton 
pent dire du langage des Eomains, duquel aujourd'huy tout le monde 
presque use ; car il a oste presque toutes les prepositions excepte bien I 
pen ; et quant aux articles que Ton appelle, il n'en rcQoit pas un tout 
seul, ains use de noms sans bordwe, par maniere de dire ; et ne s'en 
fault pas esmerveiller, attendu qu'Homere a pen de noms prepose des 
articles, comme si c'etoient anses a des vases qui en eussent besoign, ou 
des pennacJies sur des morions. — Or que les Dialecticiens aient plus 
besoign de conjonctions, que nuls autres bommes de lettres, pour la 
liaison et tissure de leurs propositions, ou les disjonctious d'icelles, ne 
plus ne moins que les cochers ont besoign dJattelages pour atteler de 
front leur clievaux ; ou comme Ulysses avoit besoign di'ozier en la caverne 
de Cyclops pour lier ses moutons ; cela n'argue ni ne preuve pas que la 
conjonction soit autrement partie d'oraison, mais bien un outil propre a 
conjoindre selon qu'elle en porte nom, et a contenir et assembler noii 
pas toutes choses, ains seulement celles qui ne sont pas simplement 
dites : si Ton ne vouloit dire que la CJiorde ou courroye dout une balle 
seroit liee fust partie de la balle . ou la colle d'un papier ou d'un livre 
qui est colle ; et les donnees et distributions des deniers par Lie du gou- 
vernement : comme Demades disoit que les deniers que Ton distribuoit 
manuellement par teste a chasque citoyen d'Atlienes, pour veoir les 
jeux, estoient la colle du gouvernement de I'estat populaire. Et quelle 
est la conjonction qui fa^e de plusieurs propositions une, en les cous.aut 
et liant ensemble, comme le marbre fait le fer quand on le fond avec lui 
par le feu ; mais pour cela le marbre n'est pas pourtant, ny ne I'appelle 
Ion pas partie de fer ; combien que ces choses-la qui entrent en una 
composition et qui sont fondues avec les drogues que Ton mesle, ont 
accoustumc de faire et de souffrir ne scay quoi de coinmun, compose de 
tons les ingrediens. — Quant aux prepositions on les peult accomparer 
aux pennaches ou autres Ornemens que Ion met au dessus les liabille- 
mens de Testes, ou bien aux bmcs et soubassement que Ion met au des- 
soubs des Statues ; ))our ce qu'elles ne sont pas tant parties d'oraison, 
comrac alentour des parties." — Plutarch, Platonic Questions. — 9th. Amyot. 



CH. VII.] OF CONJUNCTIONS. 11 

knowledge their obligation to me. For these troublesome 
conjunctions, which have hitherto caused them so much mis- 
taken and unsatisfactory labour, shall save them many an error 
and many a weary step in future. They shall no more expose 
themselves by unnatural forced conceits to derive the English 
and all other languages from the Greek, or the Hebrew; or some 
imaginary primaeval tongue. The Particles of every language 
shall teach them whither to direct and where to stop their 
inquiries : for wherever the evident meaning and origin of the 
Particles of any language can be found, there is the certain 
source of the whole. 

B. — Without a moment's reflection, every one must perceive 
that this assertion is too general and comprehensive. The 
mixture which is found in all cultivated languages; the per- 
petual accession of new words from affectation as well as from 
improvement, and the introduction of new Arts and Habits, 
especially in learned nations ; and from other circumstances ; 
forbid the deduction of the whole of a language from any one 
single source. 

H. — Most certainly. And therefore when I say the whole, I 
must beg to be understood with those exceptions. And, that I 
may not seem to contradict myself when we shall hereafter come 
to treat of them, I beg you likewise to remember, that I by no 
means include in my assertion, the Abbreviations of language : 
for they are always improvements superadded by language in its 
progress; and are often borrowed from some other more culti- 
vated languages. Whereas the original Mother-tongue is 
always rude and tedious, without those advantages of Abbrevia- 
tion. And were he once more in being, I should not at all 
doubt of being able to con\dnce even Junius himself (who with 
many others could so far mistake the course and progress of 
speech, as to derive an uncultivated from a cultivated language) 
that, instead of referring the Anglo-Saxon to his favourite 
Greek as its original, he must seek out (and I suppose he would 
easily find) a Parent for the latter. 

But, I beg pardon, this is rather digressing from my pur- 
pose. I have nothing to do with the learning of mere curi- 
osity : ^ nor am any further concerned with Etymology, than 

^ " II y a nn point, passe leqiiel les rechevches ne sont plus que pour 



78 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART T. 

as it may serve to get rid of the false philosophy received con- 
cerning language and the human understanding. If you please^ 
therefore^ I will return to the Conjunctions I have derived; and_, 
if you think it worth the while, we will examine the conjectures 
of other persons concerning them ; and see whether I have not 
something better than the authorities you ask after in my 
favour. 

B. — I should be glad you would do so. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ETYMOLOGY OF THE ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 

IF, 

H. — If and an may be used mutually and indifferently to 
supply each other^s place. 

Besides having Skinner's authority for if, I suppose that the 
meaning and derivation of this principal supporter of the Tripod 
of Truth^ are so very clear, simple, and universally allowed, as 
to need no farther discourse about them. 

Skinner says — '^'If (in agro Line. Gif) ab A. S. Zrij:, si. Hoc 
a verbo Di}:an, dare, q. d. Dato." 

Lye, in his edition of Junius, says — " Haud inscite Skinnerus, 
qui deduxit ab A. S. Lijzan, dare, q. d. Dato.'^ 

Gif is to be found not only, (as Skinner says,) in Lincoln- 
shire, but in all our old writers. G. Douglas almost always 
uses Gif: once or twice only he has used If; once he uses 

la curiosite. Ces verites ingeiiieuses et inutiles ressemblent a des 
etoiles, qui, placees trop loin de nous, ne nous donnent point de clarte." 
— Voltaire, Sur la Societe Royale et sur les Academies. 

^ See Plutarch Tlepi tov EI tov €p AeXcjiois. 

"Ev Se AiaXeKTiKu dr) ttov ncyia-Trjv e;^ft SvvafiLV 6 crvvaTrTiKOS ovroat <Tvvbc<T- 
fios, are hrj to XoytKcuraroi/ axruJ-aTt^oiu a^icojjLa. — To yap rexvtKov Kat XoyLKOP, 
axTirep €ipi]Tai., yvatais aKoXovOias, rr^v be TrpoaXi^yj/iv f] aiadrjais to) Xoyco SiSo)- 
(Tcv. 66cv ei KttL aicrxpov enreiv, ovk aTrorpeyjrofxac tovto fivai tov ttjs oKfjOeias 
Tpmoha TOV Xoyov, 6v rqv tov \fyovTOS Trpos .to irpo-qyovpevuv aKoXovOiav 
Offxevos, ciTa TrpocrXa^oov ttjv virap^LV, 'frrayei to avp-Trepaafia ttjs anobei^fcos. 
Tov ovv I1v6lov ci dr) fxavaiKt] re rjdeTCU, kol kvkv(ov (})(ovais kql KiOapas ■\lro<f}ois, 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 79 

GEWE, and once giffis, and sometimes in case and in cais for 

GIF. 

" GiF luf be vertew, than is it leful thing ; 
GiF it be vice, it is gour undoing." 

Douglas, Prol. to 4th boke, at p. 95. 
" Thocht sum wald swere, that I the text haue waryit, 
Or that I haue this volume quite myscaryit, 
Or threpe planelie, I come neuer nere hand it, 
Or that the werk is werst that euer I fand it, 
Or git GEWE Yirgil stude wele before, 
As now war tyme to schift the werst ouer skore." 

Douglas, Fref. p. 11. 
" Be not ouer studyous to spy ane mote in myn e, 
That in gour awin ane ferrye bot can not se. 
And do to me, as ge wald be done to ; 
Now hark schirris, thare is na mare ado : 
Quha list attend, gyffis audience and draw nere." ^ 

Douglas, Fref. p. 12. 
Chaucer commonly uses if; but sometimes yeue^ yef, 
and YF. 

" Lo here the letters selid of thys thyng 
That I mote beare in all the haste I may ; 
Yeue ye woll ought unto your sonne the kyng, 
I am your seruaunt bothe nyght and day." 

CJiaucer, Man of Lawes Tale, fol. 22. p. 1. col. 2. 
" And therfore he of full auisement 
Nolde neuer write in non of his sermons 
Of suche unkynde abhominacions, 
I Ne I ne wol non reherce, tef that I may." 

Chaucer, Man of Laioes prol. fol. 18. p. 2. col. 1. 
" She was so chary table and so pytous 
I She wolde wepe yf that she sawe a mous 

( Caught in a trappe, if it were deed or bledde." 

] Prol. to Canterbury Tales. Frioresse. 

And it is to be observed that in Chaucer and in other old 

rt 6avfiaa'Tov cart AioKcKTiKrjs (jiikia tovto aana^cadai tov Xoyov to fxepos Kai 
ayanav, to fiaXia-ra km TrXeia-ra npoaxpaifxevovs Spa rovi,' (pLkocrocfiovs. 

^ [In this instance, however, it is plain that giffis is not used con- 
junctively : " Give audience and draw near." For information upon 
the Gothic, Teutonic, and Norse representatives of If and Gif, see Ad- 
ditional Note. — Ed.] 



80 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART 



I 



writers, the verb to give suffers the same variations in the 
manner of writing and pronouncing it, whether used con- 
junctively or otherwise : as does also the Noun derived from 
it. 

" And after on the daunce went 
Largesse, that set al her entent 
For to ben honorable and free, 
Of Alexanders kynne was she, 
Her most joye was ywis 
Whan that she yafe, and sayd : Hane this. 
Not Auarice the foule caytyfe 
Was halfe to grype so ententyfe 
As Largesse is to yeue and spende. 
And God alway ynowe her sende. 
So that the more she yaue aw aye 
The more ywis she had alwaye : 
Great loos hath Largesse, and great prise, 
For both wyse folke and unwyse 
Were wholy to her bandon brought. 
So wel with yeftes hath she wi-ought." 

Chaucer, Romaunt of the Rose^ f. 125. p. 2. c. 1. 

"A wyfe is Goddes yefte verely; 
Al other maner yeftes hardely c 

As londes, rentes, pasture, or commune. 
Or mouables, all ben yeftes of fortune 
That passen, as a shadowe on a wall ; 
But dred nat, yf playnly speke I shall, 
A wyfe wol laste and in thyn house endure 
Wel lenger than the lyst parauenture." 

Chaucer, Marchauntes Tale, fol. 28. p. 2. col. 2. 

"FouGiFF me, Virgill, gif I thee offend." 

Douglas, Fref. p. 11. 

" Gif us thy ansueir, quharon we sal depend." 

Douglas, 3d booke, p. 70. | 

" And suffir Tyrianis, and all Liby land 
Be GIF in dowry to thy son in hand." 

Douglas, 4th booke, p. 103. 

" Li the mene tyme, of the nycht wache the cure 
We GIF Messapus." — Douglas, 9th booke, p. 280. 

In Henry the Tilth's will, dated 1509, yon will also find 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 81 

YEVE used where we now employ give ; and in the time of 
Queen Elizabeth it was written in the same manner. 

" Yeoven under our signet." — Lodge's Illustrations. The Queen to 
Sir W. Cecil and Br. Wotton, vol. i. p. 343. 

"Yeven under our seale of our order, the first day of April 1566, 
the eight year of our reign." — Lodge's Illustrations. Qaene Elizabeth 
to the Lh'le of Sherowsbury, vol. 1. p. 362. 

GiN^ is often used in our Northern counties and by the 
Scotch_, as we use if or an : which they do with equal pro- 
priety and as little corruption : for gin is no other than the 
participle Given, GVen, Gi'n. (As they also use Gie for Give, 
and Gien for Given, when they are not used conjunctively.) 
And Hoc dato is of equal conjunctive value in a sentence with 
Da hoc, 

" Then wi' his spear he turn'd liir ovvre, 
O GIN hir face was wan ! 
He turn'd her owre and owre again, 
O GIN hir skin was whyte." 

Fercy's Reliques, vol. i. Edom'o' Gordon. 

Even our Londoners often pronounce Give and Given in the 
same manner : As, 

" 6ri' me your hand." 

" I have Gin it him well." 
So Wycherly, Love in a Wood, act 5. 

" If my daughter there should have done so, I wou'd not have gin 
her a groat." 

AN, 

I do not know that an has been attempted by any one, 
except S. Johnson : and, from the judicious distinction he has 
made between Junius and Skinner/ I am persuaded that he 



^ Eay says — " Gin, Gif, in the old Saxon is Gif ; from whence the 
word If is made per aphcpresin literce G. Gif, from the verb Gipan, 
dare ; and is as much as Bato.''* 

^ " Junius appears to have excelled in extent of learning, and Skinner 
in rectitude of understanding, Junius was accurately skilled in all the 
northern languages ; Skinner probably examined the antient and re- 
moter dialects only by occasional inspection into dictionaries : But the 
learning of Junius is often of no other use than to shew him a track by 
which he may deviate from his purpose ; to which Skinner always 
presses forward by the shortest way. Skinner is often ignorant, but 



82 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [pART !► 

will be the first person to relinquisli his own conjecture :^ espe- 
cially when he notices his own self-contradiction : for after 
having (under the article an) told us that " an is a contraction 
of And if ; " and given the following instance^ 
« WeU I know 

The clerk will ne*er wear hair on 's face that had it. 

He wiU an' if he live to be a man — " 

he very truly (under the article and) says — '^ In And if, the 
And is redundant ; and is omitted by all later writers." As 

" I pray thee, Lannce, 

An* if thou seest my boy, bid him make haste." 

The author of '^ Criticisms on the Diversions of Purley,' ^ who 
publishes under the feigned name of Cassander, (I suppose, 
because he was born in the island of Cadsan, in Dutch Flan- 
ders) and who is a Teacher and Preacher in the City of Norwich, 
thus elegantly amuses his readers. Pages 36, 37, 38. 

" I have known a public speaker who would now and then 
take a survey of his audience, and call out (if he espied any 
drooping noddles or falling jaws) — Brethren, I will tell you a 
story, — As I think this an excellent method of rousing the 
attention of a reader or hearer, for ever inclined to grow drowsy 
when the subject is so, I shall not scruple to make use of it 
upon this occasion. 

*' It is well known that the Boors in Priesland, one of the 
United Provinces, have so far retained ancient customs, as to 
be, in dress, language, and manners, exactly the same people 
which they were five hundred years ago ; a circumstance that 
induced Junius the son to pay them a visit, and to pass a few 
months among them. In a tour I made to that country some 



never ridiculous : Junius is always full of knowledge ; but his variety 
distracts his judgment, and his learning is very frequently disgraced by 
his absurdities." — Preface to Dictionary. 

^ Immediately after the publication of my letter to Mr. Dunning, I 
was informed by Mr. S. (an intimate friend of Dr. Johnson) that I was 
not mistaken in this opinion ; Dr. Johnson having declared, that if he 
lived to give a new edition of his Dictionary, he should certainly adopt 
my derivations. 

' [The late Eev. John Bruckner, for many years the much-esteemed 
minister of the Dutch church and of the Walloon or French church in 
Norwich. See Additional Notes. — En.] 






CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 83 

years ago, I was at a gentleman's house, from whicli I made 
frequent excursions into the inner part of the province. In 
one of these I was obliged to take the first sheltering place in 
my way, being overtaken by a violent shower. It was a farm 
house, where I saw several children : and / shall never forget 
the speech which one of them, an overgrown babe, made to his 
mother. He was standing at her breast; and after he had 
done with one> I heard him say to her, — Trientjen, yan my 
foor, — L e. Kate, give me t'other. — / little thought at the time, 
I should have so good an opportunity of making use of the 
story as I have at present.'' 

This story of the babe, he says, is certainly in my favour. I 
think it is decisively. 

But the Critic proceeds — "But we should not fancy that 
words exist, or must have existed, because, having adopted a 
certain method of finding out origins, we cannot possibly do 
without them. I have been looking out with some anxiety for 
the Anglo-Saxon verb 3!nan, but can get very little information 
about it. I find, indeed, in King Alfred's Will the foUowing 
article : — ^Epipfc ic an Eabpapbe mmum elbpa puna. — 
First I give to Edward my eldest son, — And from the expres- 
sion Ic an, it should seem as if there really existed such a verb 
in the Anglo-Saxon as ^nan. But as this is the only sign of 
life it has given, as one may say, for these thousand years, I 
am inclined to look upon that sign as being rather equivocal, 
and suspect that the true reading of the Will is, not Ic an, but 
Ic un, from Unnan, cedere, concedere ; this last verb being 
common in the Anglo-Saxon, and nothing more easy than to 
mistake an u for an a, in that language, as well as in English. 
However, as I have not seen hitherto any manuscript, on whose 
authority I can ground the justness of my conjecture, I do not 
give it you as any thing certain ; and if you persist in giving 
the preference to the old reading, the story of the babe is cer- 
tainly in your favour ; for there is as little diff'erence between 
TCn and Yan, as between Un and Tfn. With me it will remain 
a matter of doubt, whether there ever existed such a verb as 
Snan, the same in signification, and yet different in origin, 
with Gipan. It is by no means probable, that a people, who 
had hardly a conveyance for one idea in a thousand, should 



84 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

have procured two such noble conveyances for one single idea. 
This is a piece of luxury, which even the most civilized nations 
seldom allow themselves/' ^ 

To this I answer, that ^nan, Tfnnan, and Unnan, are all 
one and the same word differently spelled (as almost all the 
Anglo-Saxon and old English words are) because differently 
pronounced. 

But "he has been looking for Tfnan, he says, with some 
anxiety, and can get very little information about it." If he 
looks so carelessly when he is anxious, we may pretty well 
guess with how much accuracy he looks upon other occasions 
I will relieve his anxiety. I know he has Lye's collection of 
Anglo-Saxon words before him; (for he quotes it in his 66th 
page) let him put on his spectacles and open the book : he will 
there find !3!nan, and ^nnan, with references to places where 
they are used. And if, after that, he should still continue 
anxious, I will furnish him with more. 

" Nothing, he says, is more easy than to mistake an u for an a, 
in that language, as well as in the English." — It is not so easy 
to mistake the Anglo-Saxon character U for 7C, or u for a ; as 
it is to mistake the written English character u for a. 

It is not true that any people are now, or ever were, in 
the condition he represents the Anglo-Saxons; viz. of having 
" hardly a conveyance for one idea in a thousand ; " unless he 
means to include in his expression, of one idea, each man's 
particular perception. No. Cheer up, Cassander : your lot 
is not peculiar to yourself : for the people who have the poorest 
and scantiest language, have yet always many more words than 
ideas. And I leave the reader to judge whether to have two 
words for one idea, be " a piece of luxury which even the most 
civilized nation seldom allows itself." 

UNLESS. 
Skinner says — " Unless^ nisi, praeter, praeterquam, q. d. 

^ Reprehensor aiidaculus verborum — qui perpauca eademque a vulgo 
protrita legerat, habebatque nomiiiUas disciplinaj grammaticaj iuaudi- 
tiunculas, partim rudes iiiclioatasque, partiin noii probas ; easque quasi 
pulverem ob oculos, quum adortus quemque fuerat, adspergebat ; — ueque 
rationem verbum hoc, inquit, ncquc auctoritatem habet. 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 85 

One-less J i. e. uno dempto seu excepto : vel potius ab Onlej- an, 
dimittere/ liberare, q. d. Hoc dimisso.'' 

It is extraordinary, after his judicious derivation of if, that 
Skinner should have been at a loss about that of unless : 
especially as he had it in a manner before him : For Onlcf, 
dimitte, was surely more obvious and immediate than Onlepeb, 
dimisso. — As for One-less, i. e. uno dempto seu excepto, it is too 
poor to deserve notice. 

So low down as in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, this con- 
junction was sometimes written Oneles and Onelesse. And this 
way of spelling it, which should rather have directed Skinner to 
its true etymology, might perhaps contribute to mislead him to 
the childish conjecture of One less, uno dempto. — But in other 
places it is written purely onles : and sometimes onlesse. 

Thus, in the Trial of Sir John Oldcastle, An. 1413, 

" It was not possible for them to make whole Christes cote without 
seme, onlesse certeyn great men were brought out of the way." 

So Thomas Lupset, in the early part of Henry the Vlllth's 
reign; 

"But alway, sister, remembre that charitie is not perfect onles that it 
be burninge." — Treatise of Charitie, p. 8. 

" This peticion cannot take effect onles man be made like an aungel:" 
— Ibid. p. 66. 

"Fayth cannot be perfect, onles there be good workes." — A com- 
pendious Treatise teachynge the Waye of Diynge well, p. 160. 

" The more shamfully that men for the most parte feare to die, the 
greater profe there is, that such extreme poyntes of feare against all shame 
shuld not in so many dayly appere, whan death approcheth, onles bi 
natur some just feare were of the same." — Ibid. p. 166. 

In other places Lupset spells it oneles and onlesse. 
So in The Image of Governance by Sir T. Elliott, 1541^ 

" Men do feare to approche unto their soverayne Lorde, oneles they 
be called." 

" This noble empire is lyke to falle into extreme ruyne and perpetuall 
infamye, onelesse your moste excellent wysedomes wyll dilygeutly and 
constantly prepare yourselfes to the certayne remedy." 

So in — A Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for afly Chris- 

^ [Mr. Bruckner says "it is not susceptible of this sense ; it is 
solvere.'' — Ed.] 



86 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART 1. 

ten MaUj set furthe by the Kynges Majestie of Englande, 
1543. 

" Onles ye beleve, ye shall not understande." 

" No man shall be crowned, onles he lawfully fight." 

" Neyther is it possible for any man, onelesse this holy spirite shall 

first illumine his hart." 

*' True honour shall be gyven to none, oneles he be worthy." 
"Who can have true penance, onles he beleve stedfastly that God 

is?" 

" Who so ever doth forsake his lawful wyfe, oneles it be for adultery, 

commytteth adulterye in so doynge." 

*' They be bound so to do, onles they se reasonable cause to the 

contrary." 

" The soule waxeth feble, onlesse the same be cherished." 

" In vayne, onlesse there were some facultie." 

" It cannot begynne, onelesse by the grace of God." 

So in the " Supplication to King Henry VIII,'' by Barnes. 

" I shall come to the councell when soever I bee called, onles I be 
lawfiolly let." 

So in the '' Declaration against Joye^' by Gardiner, Bishop 
of Winchester. 

"No man commeth to me, onlesse my father draweth hym." 
" Can any man further replye to this carpenter, onles a man wolde 
saye, that the carpenter was also after the thefe hymselfe ? " 

"For ye fondely improve'^ a conclusion which myght stande and be 

^ To improve (i.e. to censure, to impeach, to blame, to reprove). A 
word perpetually used by the authors about Shakespeare's time, and 
especially in religious controversy. — " Whereas he hath spoken it by his 
own mouth, that it is not good for man to be alone, they have improved 
that doctrine and taughte the contrarye." — The Actes of English Votaries 
hy Ihon Bale. Dedicated to Edward the ^th. 1550. 

" A wonderful thyng, that this shoulde be cryed lawful in their cathe- 
drall church with ryngyng, syngynge, and sensynge, and in their yelde 
halle condemned for felony and treason. Ther did they worshyp it in 
their scarlet gownes with cappe in hande, and here they improved it with 
scornes and with mockes, grennyng upon her lyke termagaimtes in a 
playe." — Actes of English Votaries. 

The wojd is taken by us from the French, who used it and still con- 
tinue to use it in the same meaning. — " EUes croient que le corps et le 
sang sont vraiment distribues a ceux qui mangent ; et improuvent ceux 
qui enseignent le contraire." — Bossuet des Varlat. des Eglises Prot. 

" lis sont indigncs de jamais coraprendre ces sortes de beautes, et 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 87 

true, with your fonde paradox of only faytli justifieth, onlesse in teach- 
ing ye wyl so handel the matter, as, &c." 

" We cannot love God, onles he prepareth our harte and geve us that 
grace ; no more can we beleve God, onlesse he giveth us the gift of 
belefe." 

" In every kynde the female is commonly barren, onlesse it conceyveth 
of the male; so is concupyscence barren and voyde of synne, onlesse it 
conceyve of man the agreymente of his free wyll." 

"We may not properly saye we apprehend justification by fayth, 
onlesse we wolde call the promisse of God, &c." 

" Such other pevisshe wordes as men be encombred to heare, onles 
they wolde make Goddes worde the matter of the Devylles strife." 

" Who can wake out of synne, without God call him ; and onlesse 
God hath given eares to heare this voyce of God ? How is any man 
beyng lame with synne, able to take up his couche and walke, onlesse 
God sayeth, &c. ? " 

So in the " Answeare to Fekenham toucMnge the Othe of the 
Supremacy ,^^ by Horne^ Bishop of Winchester. 

" I coulde not choose, oneles I woulde shawe myselfe overmuch un^ 
kinde unto my native countrey, but take penne in hande and shape him 
a ful and plaine answeare, without any curiositie." 

" The election of the pope made by the clergie and people in those 
dales, was but a vaine thing, onles the emperour or his lieutenant had 
confirmed the same." 

sent condamnez au malheur de les improuver, et d'etre improuvez aussi 
des gens d'esprit." — Lettres de Bussy Rabutin, tom. 4, p. 278. 

" La bourgeoisie de Geneve a droit de faire des representations dans 
toutes les occasions ou elle croit les loix lesees, et oil elle improuve la 
conduite de ses magistrats." — Rousseau, vol. 2. p. 440. 

" Je ne pouvois en effet me dissimuler qu'en improuvant les travaux 
qu'on venoit de faire ; ceux qui les avoient ordonnes en rejetteroient le 
blame sur les deux architectes." — Memoires du Baron de Tott^ tom. 2. 
p. 123. 

*' An*etons-nous sur les inculpations faites a Roland dans cette acte 
d'accusation, qui sera la honte du siecle et du peuple qui a pu, ou 
I'approuver, ou ne pas hautement Vimprouver.'' — Observations par 
Amar. 

The expression in Hamlet (act 1. sc. 1.) — "Of unimproved mettle 
hot and full " — ought not to have given Shakespeare's commentators 
any trouble: for unimproved means unimpeaclied ; though Warburton 
thinks it means ''unrefined;''' Edwards, ''unproved;'' and Johnson 
(with the approbation of Malone) "not regulated nor guided by know- 
ledge or experience .- " and in his Dictionary he explains it to be " not 
taught^ not meliorated by instruction." 



88 



ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART 1. 



" The pope would not consecrate the elect bishop, onles he had first 
license therto of the emperour." 

" No prince, no not the emperour himselfe should be present in the 
councell with the cleargie, onles it were when the principall pointes of 
faith were treated of." 

" He sweareth the Eomaines that they shall never after be present 
at the election of any pope, onles they be compelled thereunto by the 
emperour." 

*' Who maketh no raencion of any priest there present, as you untruely 
report, onles ye will thinke he meant the order, whan he named the 
faction of the Pharisees." 

" So that none should be consecrate, onlesse he were commended and 
investured bishop of the kinge." 

"And further to commaunde the newe electe pope to forsake that 
dignitie unlawfully come by, onlesse they woulde make a reasonable 
satisfaction." 

" That the pope might sende into his dominions no legate, onlesse 
the kinge shoulde sende for him." 

"What man, onlesse he be not well in his wittes, will say that, 
&c." 

" To exercise this kinde of jurisdiction, neither kinges nor civill magis- 
trates may take uppon him, onlesse he be lawfully called." 

"That from hencefoorth none shoulde be pope, onelesse he were 
created by the consent of the emperour." 

" Ye cannot finde so muche as the bare title of one of them, onelesse 
it be of a bishoppe." 

So in the " Whetstone of Witte/' by Robert Eecorde, 1557. 

" I see moare menne to acknowledge the benefite of nomber, then I can 
espie willyng to studie to attaine the benefites of it. Many praise it, bu* 
fewe dooe greatly practise it ; onlesse it bee for the vulgare practice 
concernyng Merchaundes trade." 

" Yet is it not accepted as a like flatte, onles it be referred to some 
other square nomber." 

I believe that William Tyndall, our immortal and matchless 
translator of the Bible, was one of the first who wrote this 
word with an u ; and, by the importance and merit of his works, 
gave course to this corruption in the language.^ 

* Shakespeare, in Othello, act 2. sc. 3, writes, 

" What 's the matter. 

That you Unlace your reputation thus. 
And spend your rich opinion for the name 
Ufa night brawler?" 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 89 

" The scripture was geven, that we may applye the medicine of the 
scripture, every man to his own sores, unlesse then we entend to be idle 
disputers and braulers about vaine wordfes, ever gnawyng upon the bitter 
barke without, and never attayning unto the sweete pith within, &c." — 
Prol. before the 5 h. of Moses. 

" My thoughts have no veines, and yet dnles they be let blood I shall 
perish." — FMdimion. By John Lilly, act 1. sc. 1. 

" His frendes thought his learaing theire sufficient (unles he should 
proceed Doctor and professe some one studie or science." — Lord Burley's 
Life in PecJc's Desiderata Curiosa, vol. 1. pag. 4. 

" No man's cattell shall be questioned as the companies, tjnles such 
as have been entrusted with them or have disposed of them without 
order." — Articles sighted and sealed by the Commissioners of the Councill 
of State for the Commonwealth of England the twelveth day of March, 
1651. 

I do not know that Onlej' is employed conjunctively by the 
Anglo-Saxon writers, as we use Unless ; (though I have no 
doubt that it was so used in discourse ;) but instead of it, they 
frequently employ nym^e or nem'Se : (which is evidently the 
Imperative nym or nem of nyman or neman, to which is 
subjoined ^e, i. e. That}) And nym^e — Take away that, — 
may very well supply the place of — Onlcf ('Se expressed or 
understood) — Dismiss that. 

Les, the Imperative of Lefan (which has the same mean- 
ing as Onlepan), is likewise used sometimes by old writers 
instead of unless. 

" And thus I am constrenit, als nere as I may, 
To ha Id his verse, and go nane uthir way ; 
Les sum historic, subtell worde, or ryme, . 
Causis me mak degressioun sum tyme." 

G. Douglas. Preface. 



In a note on this passage S. Johnson says — " Slacken or loosen. Put 
in danger of dropping ; or, perhaps, strip of its ornaments." And in his 
Dictionary he says, — "To make loose; to put in danger of being lost. — 
Not in use." But he gives no reason whatever for this interpretation. 
I believe that Unlace in this passage means — "You unless or onles 
your reputation," from the same verb Onlej'an. 

^ It is too singular to be left unnoticed, that the ancient Eomans used 
Nemut, instead of Nisi. For which Festus cites Cato de Potestate Ti'ib. ; 
but the passage is lost. 



90 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [pART I. 



Gifhe 



Commyttis any tressoun, suld he not de ; 
Les than his prince of grete humanite 
Perdoun his fault for his long trew service." 

G. D. Frol. to 10th book. 

** Sterff the behuffis, les than thou war unkynd 
As for to leif thy brothir desolate." 

G. D. Miead, 10th book. 

In the same manner it is used throughout Ben Jonson. 
*' Less learn'd Trebatius Censure disagree." — Poetaster. 
"First hear me — ^Not a syllable, less you take." 

Alchymistj act 3. scene 5. 
" There for ever to remain 

Less they could the knot uiistrain." — Masqm, 
" To tell you true, 'tis too good for you. 

Less you had grace to follow it." — BartTiol. Fair. 
" But will not bide there, less yourself do bring him." 

Sad Shepherd}^ 

^ It is this same Imperative les, placed at the end of nouns and 
coalescing with them, which has given to our language such adjectives as 
hopeless, restless, deathless, motionless, &c. i.e. Dismiss hope, rest, death, 
motion, &c. 

The two following lines of Chaucer in the Eeve's Tale, in Wyllyam 
Thynne's edition, 

" And when the horse was lose, he gan to gon 
Towarde the fen, there wylde mares rynne " — 
are thus printed in Mr. Tyrwhit's edition, 

" And whan the hors was laus, he gan to gon 
Toward the fen, ther wilde mares renne." 

I am to suppose that Mr. Tyrwhit is justified for this reading by some 
manuscript ; and that it was not altered by himself merely for the sake of 
introducing '■'Laus, Island, and the Consuetud. de Beverley,'' into his 
Glossary. 

" Laus (says Mr. Tyrwhit) adj. Sax. Loose. 4062. Laus, Island. 
Solutus. This is the true original of that termination of adjectives so 
frequent in our language, in les or less. Consuetud, de Beverley. M.S. 
Harl. 560. — Hujus sacrilegii emenda non erat determinata, sed dicebatur 
ab Anglis Botalaus, i.e. sine emenda. — So Chaucer uses Boteles, and 
other words of the same form ; as Detteles, L}rinkeles, Gilteles, &c." 

I think, however, there will be very little doubt concerning this deriva- 
tion, when it is observed that we say inditferently either sUep-less, or 
without-sleep, &c. i. e. Dismiss sleep or Be-out sleep, &c. And had not 
these words les and without been thus convertible, Shakespeare would 
have lost a pun. — " Thrice have I sent him (says Glendow^er) weather- 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 91 

" You must no more aim at those easie accesses, 
Less you can do 't in air." 

Beaumont and Fletcher. Beggars Bushy act. 5. sc. 3. 

You will please to observe tliat aU the languages which have 
a correspondent conjunction to Unless, as well as the manner in 
which its place is supplied in the languages which have not a 
conjunction correspondent to it^ all strongly justify my deriva- 
tion. The Greek El fir}. The Latin Nisi. The Italian Se 
non. The Spanish Sino. The French Si non. All mean 
Be it not. And in the same manner do we sometimes supply 
its place in English either by But, Without, Be it not. But 
if, &c. 

beaten home, and bootless back." " Home without boots (replies Hotspur) 
and in foul weather too ! How scapes he agues in the Devil's name ? " 
So, for those words where we have not by habit made the coalescence, as 
the Danish Folkelos and Halelos^ &c. we say in English Without people. 
Without a tail, &c. But any one may, if he pleases, add the termination 
less to any noun : and though it should be unusual, and heard for the first 
time, it will be perfectly understood. Between Wimborn-minster and 
Cranbourn in Dorsetshire, there is a wood called Harley : and the 
people in that country have a saying perfectly intelligible to every English 
ear. — "When Harley is hare-less, Cranbourn whore-less and Wimbom 
poor-less, the world will be at an end." And it is observable, that in all 
the northern languages, the termination of this adjective in each language 
varies just as the correspondent verb, whose imperative it is, varies in 
that language. 

Termination. Infin. of the Verb. 

Goth AAns AAnSQAN 

A.S Leaj" Leoj^an * 

Dutch Loos* Lessen 

German Los Losen 

Danish , Los Loser 

Swedish Los Losa. 

I must be permitted here to say, that I sincerely lament the principle 
on which Mr. Tyi'whit proceeded in his edition of Chaucer's tales. Had 
he given invariably the text of that manuscript which he judged to be the 
oldest, and thrown to the bottom the variorum readings with their autho- 
rity ; the obligation of his readers (at least of such as myself) would 
indeed have been very great to him : and his industry, care, and fidelity 
would then have been much more useful to inquirers, than any skiU which 
he has shown in etymology or the northern languages, were it even much 
greater than it appears to me to have been. 

* [Mr. Bruckner states, that Mr. Tooke changes lej^an for leojran ; 
and that the Dutch imperative is not loos, but loss. — Ed.] 



92 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

" Without profane tongues thou canst never rise, 
Nor be upholden, Be it not with lies." 

M. Drayton. Leg. of R. B. of Normandy. 
" That never was there garden of such pryse, 

But yf it were the very paradyse." — Frankeleyri's Tale. 
"That knighte he is a foul Paynim, 
And large of limb and bone ; 
And But if heaven may be thy speede, 

Thy life it is but gone." — Sir Cauline. FercyU Heliques. 
Thougli it certainly is not worth the while, I am tempted 
here to observe the gross mistake Mr. Harris has made in 
the Force of this word; which he calls an ^^ Adequate Pre- 
ventive.'' 

His example is — 

'^ Troy will be taken, unless the Palladium be preserved.'^ 
" That is (says Mr. Harris) This alone is sufficient to preserve 
it.'' — According to the oracle, so indeed it might be; but the 
word UNLESS has no such force. 
Let us try another instance. 

"England will be enslaved unless the House of Commons 
continues a part of the Legislature.'' 

Now, I ask, is this alone sufficient to preserve it? We 
who live in these times, know but too well that this very- 
house may be made the instrument of a tyranny as odious 
and (perhaps) more lasting than that of the Stuarts. I am 
afraid Mr. Harris's adequate Preventive will not save us. For, 
though it is most cruel and unnatural ; yet we know by woful 
experience that the Kid may be seethed in the mother's milk, 
which Providence appointed for its nourishment; and the 
liberties of this country be destroyed by that very part of the 
Legislature, which was most especially appointed for their 
security. 

An instance has been already given where if is used as a pre- 
position. In the following passage of Dryden, unless is also 
used as a preposition ; 

" The commendation of Adversaries is the greatest triumph of a writer ; 
because it never comes unless extorted." 

EKE. 
Junius says, — "Eak, etiam. Goth. /VtlK. A.S. Cac. 
Al. Auch. D. Off. B. Ook. Viderentur esse ex inverso kul ; 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 93 

sed rectius petas ex proxime sequent! ^VHKA ^ (^^^- ^^^^) • 
A. S. Gcan. Gacan. lean. Al. Auchon, D. Oge. B. Oecken. 
Gacan vero_, vel Auchon, sunt ab ae^etv, vel av^eov, addere^ ad- 
jicere, augere.^^ 

Skinner says — '^^Eke. ab A.S. Gac. Deac. Belg. Oock. Teut. 
Auch. Fr. Th. Ouch. Dan. Oc. etiam.^^ 

Skinner then proceeds to the verb^ 

^^To Eke, ab A.S. Gacan. Ereican. lecan. augere, adjicere. 
Er. Jun. suo more_, deflectit a Gr. av^etv. Mallem ab Gac, 
iterum, quod vide : quod enim augetur, secundum partes suas 
quasi iteratur et de novo fit.^^ 

In this place Skinner does not seem to enjoy his usual supe- 
riority of judgment over Junius. And it is very strange that 
he should chuse here to derive the verb Gacan from the con- 
junction Gac (that is, from its own imperative) j rather than 
the conjunction (that is, the imperative) from the verb. His 
judgment was more awake when he derived if or gif from 
Lripan, and not Irijzan from Irij:; which yet, according to his 
present method, he should have done. 

Perhaps it may be worth remarking, as an additional proof 
of the nature of this conjunction ; that in each language, where 
this imperative is used conjunctively, the conjunction varies just 
as the verb does. 

In Danish the conjunction is og, and the verb oger. 
In Swedish the conjunction is och, and the verb oka. 
In Dutch the conjunction is oak, from the verb oecken. 
In German the conjunction is auch, from the verb auchon. 
In Gothic the conjunction is ^V\K, and the verb A^IKA^* 
As in English the conjunction is Eke or Eak, from the verb 

Gacan. 

YET. STILL. 

I put the conjunctions yet and still here together ; because 
(like If and An) they may be used mutually for each other 
without any alteration in the meaning of the sentences : a cir- 
cumstance which (though not so obviously as in these instances) 
happens likewise to some other of the conjunctions ; and which 
is not unworthy of consideration. 

According to my derivation of them both, this mutual inter- 
change will not seem at all extraordinary : for yet (which is 



94 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

nothing but the imperative Defc or Ttyt, of Decan or Tjytan, 
obtinere) and still (which is only the imperative Scell or 
Steall, of 8tellan or Scealhan/ ponere) may very well supply 
each other's place, and be indifferently used for the same 
purpose. 

Algate and even algates, when used adversatively by 
Chaucer, I suppose, though so spelled, to mean no other than 
AlUget,'' 

" For albeit tarieng be noyful, algate it is not to be reproued in 
yeuynge of iugement, ne in vengeaunce takyng." — TaU of Ghaucer^ fol. 
74. p. 3. col. 1. ' 

*' A great wane of the see cometh somtyme with so great a vyolence, 
that it drownetk the shyppe : and the same harme dothe sometyme the 
smaU dropes of water that entreth through a lyteR creueys, in to the 
tymbre and in to the botome of the shyppe, yf men be so negligente 
that they discharge hem not by tymes. And therefore all though there 
be a difference betwixt these two causes of drowning, algate 3 the 
shyppe is drowned."* 

The verb To get is sometimes spelled by Chaucer geate. 

But I will repeat to you the derivations which others have 
given, and leave you to chuse between us. 

Mer. Casaubon says — " Etc^ adhuc, Yet.'^ 

Junius says — ''Yet, adhuc. A.S. liyc. Cymraeis eiwa, etto, 
significat, adhuc, etiam, iterum ; ex ere vel av6i<iJ^ 

Skinner says — "Yet, ab A.S. Defc, Deta, adhuc, modo. 
Teut. Jetztj jam, mox.'^ 

Again he says — '' Still, assidue, indesinenter, incessanter. 
Nescio an ab A.S. Tdl, addito tantum sibilo; vel a nostro et, 
credo, etiam A.S. As, ut, sicut, (licet apud Somnerum non oc- 
currat) et eodem Td, usque, q.d. usque, eodem modo." 



^ Tliough this verb is no longer current in English, except as a Con- 
junction, yet it keeps its ground in the collateral languagee. 

In German and Dutch it is Sfellen 

In the Swedish Stalla 

And in the Danish Stiller. 

' [Skinner says, " Algates, semper, omnino, nihilominus, ab All & 
Gate, via, q.d. omnibus viis : " which explanation seems best to accord 
with the sense of various passages in which the word occurs, and is no 
doubt to be preferred to that which Mr. Tooke supposes. — Ed.] 

" [i. e. *' In any way, — in either case, — in all ways, the ship is drown- 
ed : " — '* toujour s le vaisseau est abime." — Ed.] 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 95 

ELSE. 

This word else^ formerly written AlleSj Alys, Alyse, Elles, 
EUiiSj Ellis J Ells J Els, and now Else ; is^ as I haA^e said^ no 
other than ^lep or 3!lyp_, the imperative of ^lepan or 7f lypan, 
dimittere. 

Mr. Warton^ in his History of English Poetry j vol. 1. p. 191 
(without any authority, and in spite of the context, which evi- 
dently demands Else, and will not admit oi Also) has explained 
ALLES in the following passage by Also, 
" The Soudan ther he satte in halle ; 
He sent Ms messagers faste with alle. 

To hire fader the kyng. 
And seyde, hou so hit ever bi falle, 
That mayde he wolde clothe in palle 

And spousen hire with Ms ryng. 
And ALLES -^ I swere withouten fayle 
I chull hire winnen in pleye -^ battayle 
With mony an heih lordyng.'* 

The meaning of which is evidently, — ^^ Giyg me your 
daughter, else I will take her by force." 

It would have been nonsense to say^ — " Give me your 
daughter, also I wiU take her by force." 

" To hasten loue is thynge in veine, 
Whan that fortune is there ageine. 
To take where a man hath leue 
Good is : and elles he mote leue." 

Gower, lib. 2. fol. 57. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Withouten noyse or clatterjnig of belles 
Te Deum was our songe, and nothyng elles." 

Chaucer, Sompners Tale, fol. 43. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Eschame joung virgins, and fair damyceUis, 
Purth of wedlok for to disteyne jour keUis ; 
Traist not all talis that wantoun wowaris tellis, 
50U to defloure purposyng, and not ellis." 

Douglas, Frol. to 4th boke, p. 97. 

" And, bycause the derthe of things be suche as the soldyors be not 

able to lyue of theyr accustomed wages, which is, by the day, six pence 

^ [The readings are elles ; — pleyn : in Eitson's collection. The ex- 
tracts from old English poems in the first edition of Warton are so 
inaccurate that no reliance can be placed in them. In the subsequent 
8vo. editions they have been collated and corrected by Mr. Price, and 
Sh F. Madden.— Ed.] 



96 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

the foteman and nine pence tli' horsman ; therfor we beseclie your lord- 
ships to be meanes to the Queene's majestie, that order may be taken, 
eyther for th' encreace of theyr wages by the day, the foteman to eight- 
pence, and th' horsman to twelve pence, or ells to allow that at the pay 
daise they may, by their capteins or otherwise, haue some rewarde to 
counteruaill the like somme." — The Council in the North to the Privy 
Council, Mh of Sept. 1557. Lodge's Illustrations. 

N.B. " Wheat at this time was sold for four marks per quarter. 
Within one month after the harvest the price fell io Jive shillings.'^ 
" And eury man for his partie 
A kyngdome hath to iustifie. 
That is to sein his owne dome. 
If he misrule that kyngdome, 
He leseth him selfe, that is more, 
Than if he loste ship and ore, 
And all the worldes good with alle. 
For what man that in speciall 
Hath not him selfe, he hath not els, 
No more the perles than the shels, 
All is to him of o value." 

Gower, lib. 8. fol. 185. p. 2. col. 2. 
" Nede has no pere, 
Him behoueth serue himselfe that has no swayn, 
Or els he is a fole, as clerkes sayn." 

Chaucer, Reues Tale^ fol. 16. p. 1. col. 2. 
Junius says — " Else^ aliter, alias^ alioqui. A.S. Gllej*. Al. 
Alles. D. Ellers:' 

Skinner says — "Else, ab A.S. Gllej', alias, alioquin. 
Minshew et Dr. Thomas Hickes putant esse contractum a Lat. 
Alias, vel Gr. AXkco^, nee sine verisimilitudine.^' 

S. Johnson says — "Else, Pronoun, (GUej*, Saxon) other, one 
besides. It is applied both to persons and things." 

He says again — "Else, Adverb. I. Otherwise. 2. Besides; 
except that mentioned." 

THOUGH. 
Tho', though, thah ^ (or, as our country-folks more pui'ely 
pronounce it, thaf, thauf, and thof) is the imperative Da}: 

^ See a ballad written about the year 1264, in the reign of Henry the 
third ; 

** Ilichard thah thou be ever trichard, 
Trictlieu shalt thou never more." 

Pei'cg's Rdigues, vol. 2. p. 2. 



CH. VITI.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 97 

or Dajzij of the verb Dajzian or Dapijan; to allow, permit, 
grants yield, assent : And ©apij becomes Thah, Though, Thoug 
(and Thoch, as G. Douglas and other Scotch authors write it) 
by a transition of the same sort, and at least as easy, as that 
of Hawk from J^apuc. And it is remarkable, that as there 
were originally two ways of writing the verb, either with the 
guttural G (Dapijan) or without it (Dafian) : so there still 
continues the same difference in writing and pronouncing the 
remaining imperative of this same verb, with the guttural G 
{Though), or without it {Tho'). In English the difference is 
only in the characters ; but the Scotch retain in their pronun- 
ciation, the guttural termination. 

In the earlier Anglo-Saxon the verb is written je^apijan. 
In a charter of William the conqueror it is written — ic nelle 
jeSajzian. And in a charter of Henry the first it is also written 
— ic nelle je^apan. But a charter of Henry the second has it 
ic nelle je^auian. — See the Preface to Hickes's Thesaurus, 
p. 15, 16. 

So that we thus have a sort of proof, at what time the j: was 
dropped from the pronunciation of "Sapian ; (namely, about the 
reign of Henry the second;) and in what manner thafig 
became thaf, and thaf became thau or tho\ 

I reckon it not a small confirmation of this etymology, that 
our antient writers often used All be. All be it. All had. All 
should. All were. All give. How be it. Set. Suppose, &c. 
instead of Although. 

" But AL BE that he was a philosophre, 
Yet had he but lytel golde in cofre." 

Chaucer y Prol, to Canterh. Tales. 
" Ye wote your selfe, she may not wedde two 
At ones, though ye fyghten euer mo ; 
But one of you, all be him lothe or lefe, 
He mote go pype in an yue lefe." 

KnygJites Tale, fol. 5, p. 2. col. 2. 

See also another ballad written in the year 1307, on the death of 
Edward the first. 

" Thah mi tonge were mad of stel. 
Ant min herte yzote of bras, 
The godness myht y never telle 
That with kyng Edward was." 

Percy's Reliques, vol. 2. p. 10. 

H 



98 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

" Albeit originally the King's Bench be restrained by this Act to 
hold plea of any real action, yet by a mean it may ; as when removed 
thither, &c." — Lord Cole. 

" — I shal yeuen her sufficient answere, 

And all women after for her sake. 

That though they ben in any gylte itake. 

With face bolde they shullen hem selue excuse, 

And here hem doun that wold hem accuse ; 

Por lacke of answere, non of hem shull dyen ; 

All HA.D he sey a thyng with both his eyen. 

Yet shuld we women so visage it hardely, 
. And wepe and swere and chyde subteUy, 

That ye shal ben as leude as gees." 

Chaucer, Marchauntes Tale, fol. 33. p. 1. col. 2. 
'• But rede that boweth down for euery blaste, 

Ful lyghtly, cesse wynde, it wol aryse ; 

But so nyl not an oke, whan it is caste 

It nedeth me nought longe the forvyse, 

Men shal reioysen of a great emprise 

Atcheued wel, and stant withouten dout, 

Al haue men ben the lenger there about." 

3d boke of Troylus, fol. 170. p. 2. col. 1. 
" For T wol speke, and tel it the 

Al shulde I dye." 

Romaunt of the Rose, fol. 152. p. 2. col. 1. 
" And I so loued him for his obeysaunce 

And for the trouthe that I demed in his hert, 

That if so were, that any thyng him smert 

Al were it neuer so lyte, and I it wyst, 

Methought I felt deth at my hert twist." 

Squiers Tale, fol. 27. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Allgyf England and Fraunce were thorow saught." — Skelton, 
" The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not. 

Is of a constant, loving, noble nature," — Othello, act 2. sc. 1. 
" No wonder was, suppose in mynde that he 

Toke her fygure so soone, and Lo now why 

The ydol of a thyng in case may be 

So depe empiynted in the fantasy 

That it deludeth the wyttes outwardly." 

Complaynt of Creseyde, fol. 204. p. 1. col. 2. 
" In sere placis throw the ciete with thys 

The murmour rais ay mare and mare, I wys, 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 99 

And clearar wax the rumour, and the dyn, 
So that, suppois ^ Anchises my faderis In 
With treis about stude secrete by the way. 
So bustuous grew the noyis and furious fray 
And ratling of thare armoure on the strete, 
Affray it I glisnit of slepe, and sterte on fete." 

Douglas y boke 2. p. 49. 
*' Eurill (as said is) has tliis iouell hint. 
About his sydis it brasin, or he stynt ; 
Bot all for nocht, suppois the gold dyd glete." 

Douglas i boke 9. p. 289. 

" That sche might haue the copies of the pretendit wi'itingis giuen 

in, quhilkis they haue diuerse tymes requirit of the Queue's maiestie and 

hir counsel, suppois thay haue not as git obtenit the samin." — Mary 

Queen of Scots. 

N.B. — In the year 1788 I saw the same use of suppose for 
THOUGH^ in a letter written by a Scotch officer at Guernsey, 
to my most lamented and dear friend the late Lieutenant 
General James Murray. The letter in other respects was in 
very good and common English. 

" I feel exceedingly for Lord W. M. suppose I have not the honour 
of being personally acquainted with him." 

I believe that the use of this word suppose for though is 
still common in Scotland. 

The German uses Dock ; the Dutch Dock and Dog ; the 
Danish Dog and Endog ; and the Swedish Dock; as we use 
Though : all from the same root. The Danish employs Skiont 

and Endskiondt ; and the Swedish Anskontj for Though : frora 
the Danish verb Skionner ; and the Swedish verb, Skionja, both 
of which mean, to perceive, discern, imagine, conceive, suppose, 
understand. 

As the Latin Si (if) means Be it : and Nisi and Sine [unless 
and without) mean Be not : so Etsi [although) means And be 
it.^ The other Latin Conjunctions which are used for Although, 

QuANQUAM secreta parentis 



Anchisse domus." 



' It may not be quite needless to observe, that our conjunctions if 
and THOUGH may very frequently supply each other's place, as — 
" Though an host of men rise up against me, yet shall not my heart 
be afraid;" or, "If an host of men, &c." So "Though all men 

H 2 



100 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

(as, Quam-vis, Licet, Quantum- vis j Quam-lihet,) are so uncor- 
rupted as to need no explanation. 

Skinner barely says — "Though, ab A.S. Deah. Belg. 
Dochj Belg. & Teut. Dock. etsi_, quamvis.^^ ^ 

\ BUT, 

It was this word, but_, which Mr. Locke had chiefly in view, 
when he spoke of Conjunctions as marking some " Stands, 
Turns, Limitations, and Exceptions of the mind.^' And it was 
the corrupt use of this One word (but) in modern English, for 
Two words (bot and but) originally (in the Anglo-Saxon) very 
different in signification, though (by repeated abbreviation and 
corruption) approaching in sound, which chiefly misled him. 

" But (says Mr. Locke) is a Particle, none more familiar in 
our language ; and he that says it is a discretive Conjunction, 
and that it answers sed in Latin, or mais in French,^ thinks 
he has sufficiently explained it. But it seems to me to inti- 
mate several relations the mind gives to the several propositions 
or parts of them, which it joins by this monosyllable. 

" First, — But to say no more : 

" Here it intimates a stop of the mind, in the course it was 
going, before it came to the end of it. 

" Secondly, — / saw but two plants. 

" Here it shews, that the mind limits the sense to what is 
expressed, with a negation of all other. 

should forsake you, yet will not I ; " or, " If all men should forsake 
you, &c." 

■^ Though this word is caUed a conjunction of sentences, it is con- 
stantly used (especially by children and in low discourse) not only at 
the beginning, and between, but at the end of sentences. 

" Pro. Why do you maintain your poet's quarrel so with velvet and 
good clothes ? We have seen him in indifferent clothes e're now himself 

** Boy. And may again. But his clothes shall never be the best 
thing about him, though. He will have somewhat beside, either of 
humane letters or severe honesty, shall speak him a man, though he went 
naked." 

[Relative to the word Though, see Grimm, iii. 177, 285, 8ic., and 
Additional Notes. — Ed.] 

^ It does not answer to Sed in Latin, or Mais in French ; except only 
where it is used for JBot, Nor will any one word in any Language answer 
to our Enghsh but : because a similar corruption in the same instance 
has not happened in any other language. 



CH. VTII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS^ 101 

'^Thirdly, — You pray; but it is not that God would bring 
you to the true religion : 

" Fourtlily, — But that he would confirm you in your own. 

" The first of these buts intimates a supposition in the mind 
of something otherwise than it should be : the latter shews that 
the mind makes a direct opposition between that and what goes 
before it. 

" Fifthly, — All animals have sense, but a dog is an animal. 

" Here it signifies little more, but that the latter proposition 
is joined to the former, as the Minor of a Syllogism. 

'^To these, I doubt not, might be added a great many other 
significations of this particle, if it were my business to examine 
it in its full latitudey and consider it in all the places it is to be 
found; which if one should do, I doubt whether in all those 
manners it is made use of, it would deserve the title of dis- 
cretive which Grammarians give to it. 

" But / intend not ^ here a full explication of this sort of signs. 
The instances I have given in this one, may give occasion 
to reflect upon their use and force in language, and lead us 
into the contemplation of several actions of our minds in dis- 
coursing, which it has found a way to intimate to others by 
these Particles, some whereof constantly, and others in certain 
constructions, have the sense of a whole sentence contained in 
them.'' 

Now all these difficulties are very easily to be removed with- 
out any efibrt of the understanding : and for that very reason 
I do not much wonder that Mr. Locke missed the explanation : 
for he dug too deep for it. But that the Etymologists (who 
only just turn up the surface) should miss it, does indeed 
astonish me. It seems to me impossible, that any man who 
reads only the most common of our old English authors should 
fail to observe it. 

Gawin Douglas, notwithstanding he frequently confounds 
the two words, and uses them often improperly, does yet 

^ " Essentiam finemque conjunctioiium satis apte explicatum puto : 
nunc earum originem materiamque videamus. Neque vero Slgillatim 
percurrere omnes in Animo est." — J. C. Scaliger. 

The constant excuse of them all, whether Grammatists, Grammarians 
or Philosophers ; though they dare not hazard the assertion, yet they 
would all have us understand that they can do it ; but non in atiimo est. 
And it has never been done. 



102 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

(without being himself aware of the distinction, and from the 
mere force of customary speech) abound with so many instances, 
and so contrasted, as to awaken, one should think, the most 
inattentive reader. 

" BoT thy werke shall endure in laude and gloria, 
But spot or fait condigne eteme memorie." — Pre/, p. 3. 

" ThocTi Wylliame Caxtoime had no compatioun 
Of Virgill in that buk he preyt in prois, 
Clepand it Virgill in Eneados, 
Quhilk that he sayis of Frensche he did translait, 
It has nathing ado therwith, God wate, 
Nor na mare like than the Denil and sanct Austin. 
Haue he na thank tharfore, bot lois his pyne ; 
So schamefully the storie did peruerte, 
I reid his werk with harmes at my hert, 
That sic ane buk, but sentence or ingyue, 
Suld be intitulit eftir the poete diuine." — Pre/", p. 5. 

" I schrink not anys correkkit for to be. 
With ony wycht groundit on charite, 
And glaidlie wald I baith inquire and lere. 
And to ilk cunnand wicht la to myne ere \ 
Bot laith me war, but uther offences or ciyme, 
Ane rural body suld intertrik my ryme." — J^ref, p. 11. 

" BoT gif this ilk statew standis here wrocht. 
War with jour handis into the ciete brocht, 
Than schew he that the peopil of Asia 
But ony obstakill in fell battel suld ga." — Boole 2. p. 45. 

" This chance is not but Goddis willis went. 
Nor it is not leful thyng, quod sche, 
Fra hyne Creusa thou turs away wyth the. 
Nor the hie governoure of the heuin aboue is 
Will suffer it so to be, bot the behuffis 
From hens to wend full fer into exile, ' 
And ouer the braid sey sayl furth mony a myle, 
Or thou cum to the land Hisperia, 
Quhare with soft coursis Tybris of Lydia 
Eynnis throw the riche feildis of pepill stout ; 
Thare is gret substance ordanit the but dout." — Booke 2. p. 64. 

" Vpoun sic wise vncertanlie we went 
Thre dayes wilsum throw the mysty stremc, 
Atid als mony nychtes but stcnieys leme, 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. , 103 

That quhidder was day or nyclit vneth wist we. 

BoT at the last on the ferd day we se 

On fer the land appere, and hillis ryse. 

The smoky vapoure up casting on thare gyse. 

Doun faUis salis, the aris sone we span 

But mare abaid." — Boohe 3. p. 74. 

" BoT gif the faits, but pleid. 

At my plesure suffer it me life to leid, 

At my fre wil my workis to modify." — Booke 4. p. 111. 

" BoT sen Apollo clepit Gryneus 
Grete Italie to seik commandis us, 
To Italie eik oraclis of Licia 
Admonist us but mare delay to ga, 
Thare is my lust now and delyte at hand." — Booke A. p. 111. 

" Thou wyth thyr harmes ouerchargit me also, 
Quhen I fell fyrst into this rage, quod sche, 
BoT so to do my teris constrenyt the. 
Was it not lefull, allace, but cumpany, 
To me but cryme allane in chalmer to ly ? " — Booke 4. p. 119. 

" Ane great eddir slidand can furth thraw, 
Eneas of the sycht abasit sum deile, 
BoT sche at the last with lang fard fare and wele 
Crepis amang the veschell and coupis all. 
The drink, and eik the offerandis grete and small, 
Snokis and likis, syne ful the altaris left. 
And but mare harme in the graif enterit eft." — Booke 5. p. 130. 

" Thare hartis on flocht, smytin with shame sum dele, 
Bot glaid and ioly in hope for to do wele. 
Basis in thare breistis desyre of hie renowne : 
Syne but delay at the first trumpis soune 
From thare marchis attanis furth thay sprent." — Booke 5. p. 133, 

"Ane uthir mache to him was socht and sperit j 
Bot thare was nane of all the rout that sterit, 
Na durst presume mete that man on the land. 
With mais or burdoun, to debate hand for hand. 
Ioly and glaid therof baith all and sum. 
Into bargane wenyng' for to ouercum. 
Before Eneas feite stude, but delay." — Booke 5, p. 140. 

" The tothir answerd, Nowthir for drede nor boist, 
The luf of wourschip nor honoure went away is 
Bot certanly the dasit blude now on dayis 



104 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

Waxis dolf and dull throw myne unweildy age, 

The cald body has mynyst my curage : 

Box war I now as umquhile it has bene 

jing as gone wantoun woistare so Strang thay wene, 

je had I now sic goutheid, traistis me, 

But ony price I suld all reddy be : 

Na lusty bul me till induce suld nede, 

Tor uouthir I suld haue crauit wage nor mede. 

Quhen this was said he has but mare abade 

Tua kempis burdouns brocht, and before thaym laid." 

Booke 5. p. 140. 
" And fyrst to hym ran Acestes the kyng, 
And for compassioun has uphynt in feild 
His freyud EnteUus unto him euin eUd. 
BoT nowthir astonist nor abasit hereon. 
Mare egirly the vailgeant campion 
Agane to bargane went als hate as fyi*e : 
And ardently with furie and mekle boist 
Gan Dares cache, and driue ouer al the coist ; 
Now with the richt hand, now with the left hand he 
Doublis dyntis, aad but abade lete fle j 
The prince Eneas than seand this dout, 
No langar suffir wald sic wraith procede, 
Nor feirs Entellus mude thus rage and sprede. 
Bot of the bargane maid end, but delay." — Booke 5. p. 143. 

*' In nowmer war they but ane few menje, 
Bot thay war quyk, and valjeant in melle." — Booke 5. p. 153. 

" Blyn not, blyn not, thou grete Troian Enee, 
Of thy bedis nor prayeris, quod sche : 
For BOT thou do, thir grete durris, but dred, 
And grislie gettis sail neuer warp on bred." — Booke 6. p. 164. 

" On siclike wise as thare thay did with me, 

Grete goddis mot the Grekis recompens, 

Gif I may thig ane uengeance but oifens. 

BoT say me this agane, freind, all togidder, 

Quhat auenture has brocht the Jeuand bidder? " 

Booke 6. p. 182. 
** How grete apperance is in him ; but dout, 

Tyll be of proues and ane vailjeant knycht : 

BoT ane blak sop of myst als dirk as nycht 

Wyth drery schaddow bylappis his hede." — Booke 6. p. 197. 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 105 

" Nor mysknaw not the condiciouns of us 

Latyne pepyll and folkis of Saturuus, 

Unconstrenyt, not be law bound thertyll, 

BoT be our inclinacioun and fre wyll 

luste and equale, and but offensis ay. 

And reulit eftir the auld goddis way." — Boohe 7. p. 212. 
" BoT sen that Virgil standis but compare." 

:Prol. to Boohe 9. p. 272. 
" Quhidder gif the goddis, or sum spretis silly 

Mouis in our myndis this ardent thochtful fire. 

Or gif that euery mannis schrewit desyre 

Be as his god and genius in that place, 

I wat neuer how it standis, bot this lang space 

My mynd mouis to me, here as I stand, 

Batel or sum grete thyng to tak on hand : 

I knaw not to quhat purpois it is drest, 

Bot be na way may I tak eis nor rest. 

Behaldis thou not so surelie but affray 

gone Eutulianis haldis thaym glaid and gay." — -ffoo^e9.p.281. 

" His feris lukis about on euery side. 

To se quharfra the groundin dart did glide. 

Bot lo, as thay thus wounderit in effray, 

This ilk Nisus, wourthin proude and gay, 

And baldare of his chance sa with him gone, 

Ane uthir takill assayit he anone : 

And with ane sound smate Tagus but remede." 

Booke 9. p. 291. 
" Agane Eneas can Tarquitus dres. 

And to recounter Enee inflamyt in tene, 

Kest hym self in ; bot the tothir but fere 

Bure at hym mychtely wyth ane lang spere." 

Boohe 10. p. 337. 
" Sic wourdis vane and unsemelie of sound 

Eurth warpis wyde this Liger fulichelie : 

Bot the Troiane baroun unabasitlie 

Na wourdis preisis to render him agane ; 

Bot at his fa let fle ane dart or flane, 

That hit Lucagus quhilk fra he felt the dynt, 

The schaft hinging in to his schield, but stynt 

Bad driue his hors and chare al fordwert streicht." 

Boohe 10. p. 338. 
" Bot quhat awalis bargane or Strang melle, 

Syne geild the to thy fa, but ony why." 

Brol. to Boohe 11. p. 356. 



106 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART T. 

" Than of his speich so wounderit war thay 
Kepit thare silence, and wist not what to say, 
BoT athir towart uthir turnis but mare. 
And can behald his fallow in ane stare." — Booke 11. p. 364. 

" Lat neuir demyt be 

The bustuousnes of ony man dant the, 

BoT that thy dochter, O thou fader gude. 

Unto gone woui-thy prince of gentill blude 

Be geuin to be thy son in law;, I wys. 

As he that wourthy sic ane wedlok is ; 

And knyt up pece but mare disseuerance. 

With all eternall band of alliaunce."— -5oo^e 11. p. 374. 

" Turnus and thy cheif ciete haue I saue, 
Sa lang as that the fatis sufferit me, 
And quhil weude sisteris sa tholit to be : 
Bot now I se that goung man haist but fale 
To mache in feild wyth fatis inequale." — Booke 12. p. 413. 

" On euery syde he has cassin his E ; 
And at the last behaldis the ciete, 
Saikles of batal, fre of all sic stryffe, 
But pane or trauel, at quiet man and wyffe. 
Than of ane greter bargane in his entent 
All suddanly the fygure dyd emprent. 
And on ane litill mote ascendit in hye, 
Quhare sone forgadderit all the Troy ane army, 
And thyck about hym flokkand can but baid, 
Bot nowthir scheild nor wappinnis doun thay laid." 

Booke 12. p. 430. 

"Ha! How, 

Sa grete ane storme or spate of felloun ire. 

Under thy breist thou roUis hait as fyre ? 

Bot wirk as I the byd, and do away 

That wraith consauit but ony caus, I pray." — Booke\2. p. 442. 

The Glossarist of Douglas contents himself with explaining 

BOT by BUT. 

The Glossarist to Urry's Edition of Chaucer says, — "Bot 
for but is a form of speech frequently used in Chaucer to 
denote the greater certainty of a thing/' — This is a most 
inexcusable assertion : for I believe the place cited in the 
Glossary is the only instance (in this edition of Chaucer) 
where bot is used; and there is not the smallest shadow of 
reason for forming even a conjecture in favour of this unsa- 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 107 

tisfactory assertion : unsatisfactory^ even if the fact had been so ; 
because it contains no explanation : for why should bot denote 
greater certainty ? 

And here it may be proper to observe, that Gawin Douglas's 
language (where bot is very frequently found), though written 
about a century after, must yet be esteemed more ancient than 
Chaucer's : even as at this day the present English speech in 
Scotland is, in many respects, more ancient than that spoken in 
England so far back as the reign of Queen Elizabeth.^ So Mer. 
Casaubon {De vet. ling. Ang.) says of his time — " Scotica lingua 
Anglica hodierna purior." — Where hj pur tor, he means nearer 
to the Anglo-Saxon. 

So G. Hickes, in his Anglo-Saxon Grammar, (Ch. 3.) says — 
" Scoti in multis Saxonizantes.^' 

But, to return to Mr. Locke, whom (as B. Jonson says of 
Shakespeare) " I reverence on this side of idolatry ; '' in the five 
instances which he has given for five different meanings of the 
word BUT, there are indeed only two different meanings : ^ nor 
could he, as he imagined he could, have added any other signi- 
fications of this particle, but what are to be found in bot and 
BUT as I have explained them.* 

^ This will not seem at all extraordinary, if you reason directly con- 
trary to Lord Monboddo on this subject; by doing which you will 
generally be right, as well in this as in almost every thing else which he 
has advanced. 

^ " You must answer, that she was brought very near the fire, and 
as good as thrown in ; or else that she was provoked to it by a divine 
inspiration. But, but that another divine inspiration moved the be- 
holders to believe that she did therein a noble act, this act of her's might 
have been calumniated," &c. — Bonne's Biadavaros, part 2. distinct. 5. 
sect. 8. 

In the above passage, which is exceedingly aukward, but is used in 
both it's meanings close to each other : and the impropriety of the cor- 
ruption appears therefore in it's most offensive point of view. A care- 
ful author would avoid this, by placing these two buts at a distance 
from each other in the sentence, or by changing one of them for some 
other equivalent word. Whereas had the corruption not taken place, 
he might without any inelegance (in this respect) have kept the con- 
struction of the sentence as it now stands : for nothing would have 
offended us, had it run thus — " Bot, hutan that another divine inspira- 
tion moved the beholders," &c. 

' S. Johnson in his Dictionary has numbered up eighteen different 
significations (as he imagines) of but : which however are all reducible to 
BOT and Be-ntmi. 



108 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

But, in the first, third, fourth, 2ind fifth instances, is corruptly 
put for bot, the imperative of Botan : 

In the second instance only it is put for Bute, or Butan, or 
Be-utan/ 

In the first instance, — " To say no more,^' is a mere paren- 
thesis : and Mr. Locke has unwarily attributed to but, the 
meaning contained in the parenthesis : for suppose the instance 

^ " I saw BUT two plants." 

Not or Ne is here left out and understood, which used formerly to be 
inserted, as it frequently is still. 
So Chaucer, 

" Tel forth your tale, spareth for no man. 
And teche us yong men of your practike. 
Gladly (quod she) if it may you lyke. 
But that I pray to all this company, 
If that I speke after my fantasy. 
As taketh not a grefe of that I say. 

For myn entent is not but to play." — JFife of Bathes Prol. 
" I ne usurpe not to haue founden this werke of my labour or of myne 
engyn, I nam but a leude compylatour of the laboure of olde astrologiens, 
and haue it translated in myn englysshe." — Introduction to Conclusyons 
of the Asti^olabye. 

" Forsake I wol at home myn herytage. 
And as I sayd, ben of your courte a page. 
If that ye vouchesafe that in this place 
Ye graunte me to haue suche a grace 
That I may haue NAT but my meate and drinke. 
And for my sustynaunce yet wol I swynke." 

" Yet were it better I were your wyfe, 
Sithe ye ben as gentyl borne as I 
And haue a realme nat but faste by." 

Ariadne, fol. 217. p. 1. col. 1. and 2. 
We should now say — my mtent is but to play. — / am but a com- 
piler, &c. 

[Webster says that the common people in America usually retain the 
negative in such cases. Lye eiToneously explains Buran by solum, tantum, 
in Oros. 1. 1. jjaeji naejion bu"can rpejen. It should rather have been 
rendered by nisi; — Non erant nisi duo. It is true, indeed, that the 
negative and Butan together are equivalent to solum. The expressions 
" can hut " and " cannot but" there evidently differ in signification. For 
Biutan, &c. {sifw), see Grimm's Grammatik, iii. 263. — Ed.] 

This omission of the negation before but, though now very common, 
is one of the most blameable and corrupt abbreviations of construction 
which is used in our language ; and could never have obtained, but 
through the utter ignorance of tlie meaning of the word but. " There 
is not (says Chillingvvorth) so much strength required in the edifice as 
in the foundation : and if but wise men have the ordering of the build- 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 109 

had been this^ — '^ but to -proceed.^^ — Or this, — ^' but, to go fairly 
through this matter'' — Or this, — " but, not to stop." 

Does but in any of these instances intimate a stop of the 
mind in the course it was going ? The truth is, that but itself 
is the furthest of any word in the language from " intimating a 

ing, they will make it much a surer thing, that the foundation shall not 
fail the building, than that the building shall not fall from the foundation. 
And though the building be to be of brick or stone, and perhaps of wood i 
yet it may be possibly they will have a rock for their foundation ; whose 
stability is a much more indubitable thing, than the adherence of the 
structure to it." 

It should be written — " If none but wise men." — But the error in the 
construction of this sentence will not excuse the present minister, if he 
neglects the matter of it. The blessings or execrations of all posterity 
for ever upon the name of Pitt, {pledged as he is) will depend inthely 
upon his conduct in this particular. 

The reader of this edition is requested to observe, that the above note is 
not inserted apres coup ; but was published in the first edition of this volume 
in 1786 ; when I was in possession of the following solemn, public engage- 
ment from Mr. IBitt, made to the Westminster Delegates in 1782. 

" Sir, 
" I am extremely sony that I was not at home when you and the other 
gentlemen from the Westminster Committee did me the honor to call. May 
I beg the favor of you to express that I am truly happy to find that the 
motion of Tuesday last has the approbation of such zealous friends to the 
pubhc, and to assure the Committee that my exertions shall never be 
wanting in support of a measure, which I agree with them in thinking 
essentially necessary to the independence of Parliament, and to the liberty 
of the people. 

I have the honor to be, with great respect and esteem, 
Sir, your most obedient and 
Lincoln's-Inn, most humble Servant, 

May 10. W. PITT." 

Although I had long known the old detestable maxim of political adven- 
turers, {for Philip was no other) — " To amuse boys with playthings and 
men with oaths " — yet, I am not ashamed to confess, I, at that time, placed 
the firmest reliance on his engagement : and in consequence of my full faith 
and trust, gave to him and to his administration, most especially when it 
tottered and seemed overthrown {at the time of the Regency Bill in 1788) a 
support so zealous and effectual, as to draw repeatedly from himself and his 
friends the warmest acknowledgments. 

TJds letter was produced by me upon my trial at the Old Bailey in the 
year 1794 : when fidelity to the sentiments it contains was seriously and 
unblushingly imputed to me as High Treason. The original of this letter 
Mr. Pitt, upon his oath, to my astonishment acknowledged to be in his own 
handwriting ; although every trace o/" Delegation was totally effaced from 
his memory. 



110 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

stopJ' On the contrary it always intimates something more,' 
something to follow : (as indeed it does in this very instance 
of Mr. Lockers ; though we know not what that something is, 
because the sentence is not completed.) And therefore when- 
ever any one in discourse finishes his words with but, the 
question always follows — but what ? 

So that Shakespeare speaks most truly .as well as poetically, 
when he gives an account of but, very different from this of 
Mr. Locke : 

''Mess. Madam, he 's well. 

Cleo. Well said. 

Mess. And friends with Caesar. 

Cleo. Thou art an honest man. 

Mess. Caesar and he are greater friends than ever. 

Cleo. Make thee a fortune from me. 

^ In the French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and several 
other dead and living languages, the very word more is used for this 
conjunction but. 

The French antiently used mais, not only as they now do for the 
conjunction mais -, but also as they now m^q plus or d'avmitage. — 
Y puis-je Mais ? 
Je n'en puis Mais, 
are still in use among the vulgar people ; in both which expressions it 
means more. So Henry Estienne uses it ; 

" Sont si bien accoustumez a ceste syncope, ou plutost apocope, qu'ils 
en font quelquesfois autant aux dissyllabes, qui n'en peuvent mais." — 
H. E. de la Precellence dii Lang age Frangois, p. 18. 

"Mais vient de magis (j'entens mais pour d'avantage.") — Id. p. 131. 

" Helas ! il n'en pouvoit mais, le pauvre prince, ni mort, ny vivant." 
— Brantome. 

" Enfin apres cent tours aiant de la maniere 
Sur ce qui n'en peut mais decharge sa colere." 

Moliere, Ecole des Femmes, a. 4. sc. 6. 

In the same manner the Italians ; 

" lo t' ho atato, quanto ho potuto : si ch' io non so, ch' io mi ti possa 
piu atare : E pero qui non ha ma che uno compenso. Comincia a pian- 
gere, e io piangero con teco insieme." — Cento Novelle. Nov. 35. 

" Fue un signore, ch' avea uno giullare in sua corte, e questo giullare 
r adorava sicome un suo Iddio. Un altro giullare vedendo questo, si 
ghene disse male, e disse : Or cui chiami tu Iddio ? Elli non e ma che 
uno." — Cento Novelle. Nov. 18. 

In the same manner also the Spanish language employs mas both for 
But and More. 

" Es la verdad la que mas importa a los principes, y la que menos se 
halla en los palacios." — Saavedra. (hrona Gothica. 

" Obra de mas novedad, y mas estudio." — Id. 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. Ill 



But — YET — Madam, — 
Cleo. I do not like but — yet. — It does allay 

The good precedent. Fie upon but, — yet. — 

But — YET — is as a jaylour, to bring forth 

Some monstrous malefactor." — Antony and Cleopatra, act 2. sc. 5. 
where you may observe that yet (tho' used elegantly here, 
to mark more strongly the hesitation of the speaker) is merely 
superfluous to the sense ; as it is always when used after 
BOX : for either bot or yet alone has the very same effect, 
and will always be found (especially bot) to allay equally the 
Good or the Bad ^ precedent ; by something more ^ that 
follows. For Botan means— to boot,^ i. e. to superadd/ 

^ " Speed. Item, She hath more hairs than wit, and more faults than 
hairs ; but more wealth than faults. 

Laun. Stop there. She was mine, and not mine, twice or thrice in 
that article. Eehearse that once more. 
Speed. Item, She hath more hair than wit. 
Laun. What 's next ? 
Speed. And more faults than hairs. 
Laun. That 's monstrous ! that that were out ! 
Speed. But more wealth than faults. 
Laun. Why that word makes the faults gracious." 

Two Gent, of Verona, act 3. sc. 1. 
Here the word but allays the Bad precedent ; for which, without any 
shifting of its own intrinsic signification, it is as well qualified as to allay 
the Good. 
2 So Tasso, 

—^'Am. Oh, che mi dici ? 

Silvia m' attende, ignuda, e sola ? Tir. Sola, 
Se non quanto v' e Dafne, ch' e per noi. 
Am. Ignuda ella m' aspetta ? Tir. Ignuda : ma — 
Am. Oime, che ma ? Tu taci, tu m' uccidi." 

Aminta, att. 2. sc. 3. 
where the difference of the construction in the English and the Italian 
is worth observing ; and the reason evident, why in the question con- 
sequent to the conjunction, what is placed after the one, but before the 
other. 

Boot what ? ) C What more ? 

i. e. [ \ i. e. 

But what ? ) (Che ma ? 

^ S. Johnson and others have mistaken the expression — To Boot — 
(which still remains in our language) for a substantive ; which is indeed 
the Infinitive of the same verb, of which the conjunction is the Impe- 
rative. As the Dutch also still retain Boeten in their language, with the 
same meaning. 

^ " Perhaps it may be thought improper for me to address you on this 
subject. But a moment, my Lords, and it will evidently appear, that 
you are equally blameable for an omission of duty here also." 



112 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

to supply, to substitute_, to atone for, to compensate with, to 
remedy with, to make amends with, to add something more in 
order to make up a deficiency in something else. 

So likewise in the third and fourth instances (taken from 
Chillingworth) .^ Mr. Locke has attributed to but a meaning 
which can only be collected from the words which follow it. 

But Mr. Locke says, — " If it were his business to examine it 
(but) in its full latitude." — And that he " intends not here a 
full explication of this sort of signs." And yet he adds, that 
— " the instances he has given in this one (but) may lead 
us into the contemplation of several actions of our minds in dis- 
coursing, which it has found a way to intimate to others by these 
particles." And these, it must be remembered, are Actions, 
or as he before termed them thoughts of our minds, for which 
he has said, we have '^ either none or very deficient names J' 

Now if it had been so, (which in truth it is not) it was 
surely for that reason, most especially the business of an Essay 
on Human Understanding, to examine these Signs in their full 
latitude; and to give a full explication of them. Instead of 
which, neither Here, nor elsewhere, has Mr. Locke given Any 
explication whatever. 

This may be supposed an abbreviation of construction, for "But 
indulge me with a moment, my Lords, and it will," &c. But there 
is no occasion for such a supposition. 

^ Knott had said, — " How can it be in us a fundamental eiTor to say, 
the Scripture alone is not judge of controversies, seeing (notwith- 
standing this our belief) we use for interpreting of Scripture all the 
means which they prescribe ; as prayer, conferring of places, consulting 
the originals," &c. 

To which Chillingworth replies, 

"You pray, but it is not that God would bring you to the true 
religion, but that he would confirm you in your own. You confer 
places, but it is, that you may confirm or colour over with plausible 
disguises your erroneous doctrines; not that you may judge of them 
and forsake them, if there be reason for it. You consult the originals, 
but you regard them not when they make against your doctrine or 
translation." 

In all these places, but (i. e. bot, or, as we now pronounce the verb, 
boot) only directs something to be added or supplied, in order to make 
up some deficiency in Knott's expressions of " prayer, conferring of 
places," &c. And so far indeed as an omission of something is improper, 
BUT (by ordering it's insertion) may be said " to intimate a supposition 
in the mind of the speaker, of something otherwise than it should be." 
But that intimation is only, as you see, by consequence ; and not by the 
intrinsic signification of the word but. 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 113 

Though I have said much, I shall also omit much which 
might be added in support of this double etymology of but : 
nor should I have dwelt so long upon it, but in compliment to 
Mr. Locke ; whose opinions in any matter are not slightly to 
be rejected, nor can they be modestly controverted without very 
strong arguments. 

None of the etymologists have been aware of this corrupt 
use of one word for two} 

Minshew, keeping only one half of our modern but in con- 
templation, has sought for its derivation in the Latin imperative 
Puta. 

Junius confines his explanation to the other half; which he 
calls its " primariam significationem." 

And Skinner, willing to embrace them both, found no better 



^ Nor have etymologists been any more aware of the meaning or true 
derivation of the words corresponding with but in other languages. 
Vossius derives the Latin conjunction at from arap ; and ast from at, 
" inserto s." (But how or why s happens to be inserted, he does not 
say.) Now to what purpose is such sort of etymology? Suppose it 
was derived from this doubtful word arap ; what intelligence does this 
give us ? Why not as well stop at the Latin word at, as at the Greek 
word arap ? Is it not such sort of trifling etymology (for I will not give 
even that name to what is said by Scaliger and Nunnesius concerning 
sed) which has brought all etymological inquiry into disgrace ? 

Vossius is indeed a great authority; but, when he has nothing to 
justify an useless conjecture but a similarity of sound, we ought not to be 
afraid of opposing an appearance of Reason to him. 

It is contrary to the customary progress of corruption in words to 
derive ast from at. Words do not gain but lose letters in their pro- 
gress ; nor has unaccountable accident any share in their corruption ; 
there is always a good reason to be given for every change they re- 
ceive : and, by a good reason, I do not mean those cabalistical words 
Metathesis, Epenthesis, &c. by which etymologists work such miracles ; 
but at least a probable or anatomical reason for those not arbitrary 
operations. 

Adsit^ Adst^ Ast, At. — This conjecture is not a little strengthened 
both by the antient method of writing this conjunction, and by the reason 
which Scaliger gives for it. — "At fuit ad ; accessionem enim dicit." — 
De a L. L. cap. 173. 

I am not at all afraid of being ridiculed for the above derivation, by 
any one who will give himself the trouble to trace the words (cor- 
responding with but) of any language to their source : though they 
should not all be quite so obvious as the French Mais, the Italian Ma^ 
the Spanish Mas, or the Dutch Maar. 

1 



114 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

method to reconcile two contradictory meanings, than to say- 
hardily that the transition from one ^ to the other ^ was — ^' levi 
FLEXU ! '' 

Junius says — '^But, Chaucero T. C. v. 194. bis positum 
pro Sine. Primus locus est in summo columnse, — ' but tern- 
peraunce in tene.' — Alter est in columnse medio, 

* This golden carte with firy hemes bright 
Foiire yoked stedes, full different of hew, 
. But baite or tiring through the spheres drew.' 

ubi, tamen perperam, primo bout pro but reposueram : quod 
iterum delevi, cum (sub finem ejusdem poematis) incidissem in 
hunc locum, — 

' But mete or drinke she dressed her to lie 
In a darke corner of the hous alone ' — 

atque adeo exinde quoque observare coepi frequentissimam esse 
banc particulse acceptionera. In zEneide quoque Scotica pas- 
sim occurrunt ' but spot or fait/ 3. 53. — ' but ony indigence/ 
4. 20. — *^but sentence or ingyne, 5. 41. — ^ principal poet but 
pere/ 9. 19. — atque ita porro. But videtur dictum quasi 
Be-ut, pro quo Angli dicunt without : unde quoque, hujus 
derivationis intuitu, prsesens hujus Particulse acceptio ^ddebitur 
ostendere banc esse primariam ejus significationemJ' 

The extreme carelessness and ignorance of Junius in this 
article is wonderful and beneath a comment. 

Skinner says, — "But, ut ubi dicimus None but he; — ab 
A.S. Bute, Butan, prater , nisi, sine ; Hinc, levi flexu, postea 
coepit, loco antiqui Anglo- Saxonici ac, Sed designare. Bute 
autem et Butan tandem deflecti possunt a prsep. Be, circa ;' vel 
Beon, esse J et Ute vel Utan, foris.'' 

Mr. Tyrwhit in his Glossary says — " But. prep. Sax. 
Without. Gloss. Ur. — I cannot say that I have myself observed 
this preposition in Chaucer, but I may have overlooked it. The 
Saxons used it very frequently; and how long the Scottish 
writers have laid it aside I am doubtful. It occurs repeatedly 
in Bp. Douglas." 

Knowing that no Englishman had yet laid this preposition 



Id est, a direction to leave out something 
Id est, a direction to superadd sometliint 



CH.. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. lib 

aside^ I was curious to see how many sentences Mr. Tyrwhit 
himself had written without the use of this preposition ; and I 
confess I was a little disappointed in not meeting with it till 
the fourth page of his preface : where he says — ^' Passages 
which have nothing to recommend them to credit, but the 
single circumstance of having been often repeated.^^ 

So in Chaucer throughout — " Hys study was but lytel on 
the Byble.^^ But Mr. Tyrwhit was not aware that, in all such 
instances, but is as much o. preposition as any in the language. 

WITHOUT, 

But (as distinguished from Bot) and without have both 
exactly the same meaning, that is, in modern English, neither 
more nor less than — Be-out. 

And they were both originally used indifferently either as 
Conjunctions or Prepositions. But later writers having adopted 
the false notions and distinctions of language maintained by 
the Greek and Latin Grammarians, have successively endea- 
voured to make the English language conform more and more 
to the same rules. Accordingly without, in approved modern 
speech,^ is now intirely confined to the office of a Preposition ; 
and but is generally though not always used as a Conjunction. 
In the same manner as Nisi and Sine in Latin are distributed ; 
which do both likewise mean exactly the same, with no other 
difference than that, in the former the negation precedes, and in 
the other ii follows the verb. 
, Skinner only says, — "Without, ab A.S. wi^utan. Extra.'' 

S. Johnson makes it a Preposition, an Adverb, and a Con- 
junction ; and under the head of a Conjunction, says, " With- 
out, Conjunct. Unless ; if not ; Except — Not in use." 

Its true derivation and meaning are the same as those of but 
(from Bucan) . 

It is nothing but the Imperative pyp'Sutan, from the Anglo- 

^ It is however used as a Conjunction by Lord Mansfield in Home's 

Trial, p. 56. 

" It cannot be read, without the Attorney General consents to it." 
And yet, if this reverend Earl's authority may be safely quoted for 

any thing, it must be for Words. It is so unsound in matter of hiw, 

that it is frequently rejected even by himself. 

I 2 



116 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

Saxon and Gothic verb peojiSan, ^)VlK^A^^ ; which in the 
Anglo-Saxon and English languages is yoked and incorporated 
with the verb Beon esse. And this will account to Mr. Tyr- 
whit for the remark which he has made, viz. that — " By and 
With are often synonymous." ^ 

In modern English we have retained only a small portion of 
it; but our old English authors had not lost the use of any 
part of this verb peop^an, and frequently employed it, instead 
of BE, in every part of the conjugation. 

" But I a draught haue of that welle, 
In whiche my deth is and my lyfe ; 
My ioye is tourned in to strife, 
That sobre shall I neuer wouthe." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 128. p. 2. col. 2. 
" Wo WOETHE the fayre gemme vertulesse, 
Wo WORTH that herbe also that doth no bote. 
Wo WORTH the beaute that is routhlesse, 
Wo WORTH that wight trede eche under fote." 

Cliancei\ Troylus, boke 3. fol. 165. p. 1. col. 1. 
" The broche of Thebes was of suche kynde, 
So ful of rubies and of stones of Inde, 
That euery wight that sette on it an eye 
He wende anone to worthe out of his mynde." 

Complaynt of Mars, fol. 343. p. 2. col. 2. 
** In cais thay bark I compt it neuer ane myte, 
Quha can not hald thare pece ar fre to flite. 
Chide quhill thare hedis riffe, and hals worthe hace." 

Douglas, Prol. to booke 3. p. 66. 
*' Thay wourth affrayit of that suddane sycht." 

Douglas, booke 8. p. 244. 
" Wo worth euer false enuie." 

Goicer, lib. 8. fol. 181. p. 1. col. 2. 
" Wo WORTH all s\ow^.r—Gower, lib. 8. fol. 188. p. 2. col. 1. 

" Sir Thopas wold out ryde. 
He WORTH upon his stede gray, 
And in his honde a launce gay, 
A long swerde by his syde." 

Chaucer, Rynie of Syr Thopas, fol. 172. p. 2. col. 1. 

^ " WUhout and Withhi. Butan and Binnan : originally, I suppose, 
Ih utan and Bi innan. By and With are often synonymous." — Glossary. 



Gtl. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 117 

" mother myn, that cleaped were Argyue, 
Wo WORTH that day, that tliou me bare on lyue." 

Troylus, boke 3. fol. 186. p. 2. col. 1. 
"Than in ray mynd of raony thingis I musit, 
And to the goddes of vildernes, as is usit, 
Quilk Hamadriades hait, I wourschip maid, 
Beseiking this auisioun worth happy, 
And the orakil prosperite suld signify." 

DouglaSy booke 3. p. 68. 
" Pallas astonist of so hie ane name 
As Dardanus, abasit worth for schame." 

Douglas, booke 8. p. 244. 
*' His hals worth dry of blude." — Douglas, booke 8. p. 250. 

" The large ground worth grisly unto se." 

Douglas, booke 11. p. 385. 
*' In lesuris and on ley is litill lammes 
Full tait and trig socht bletand to thare dammes, 
Tydy ky lowis velis, by thaym rynnis. 
And snod and slekit worth tliir beistis skinnis." 

Douglas, Prol. to booke 12. p. 402. 
" Quhat wenys thou, freynd, thy craw be worthin quhite." 

Douglas, Prol. to booke 3. p. 66. 
" And quhen thay bene assemblit all in fere, 
Than glaid scho wourthis." — Douglas, booke 13. p. 458. 

** Euer as the batel worthis mare cruel. 
Be effusion of blude and dyntis fel." — Douglas, booke 7. p. 237. 

" Wod wroith he worthis for disdene and dispite." 

Douglas, booke 12. p. 423. 

AND. 

M. Casaubon supposes and to be derived from the Greek, 
etra, postea. -^'^^ ^^^^^ ^'^ 

Skinner says — " Nescio an a Lat. Addere q. d. Adde, inter- 
jecta per Epenthesin N, ut in Render a Reddendo.^' 

Lye supposes it to be derived from the Greek €tl, adhuc, 
prseterea, etiam, quinetiam_, insuper. 

I have already given the derivation which, I believe, will 
alone stand examination. 

I shall only remark here, how easily men take upon trust, 
how willingly they are satisfied with, and how confidently they 
repeat after others, false explanations of what they do not un- 



118 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [pART I. 

derstand. — Conjunctions, it seems, are to have their denomina- 
tion and definition from the use to which they are applied: 
per accidens, esseniiam. Prepositions connect Avords ; but — 
'^ the- Conjunction connects or joins together sentences; so as 
out of two to make one sentence. Thus — ' You and I and 
Peter, rode to London/ ^ is one sentence made up of thi'ee/^ 
&c. 

Well ! So far matters seem to go on very smoothly. It is, 

" You rode, I rode, Peter rode.'' 

But let us now change the instance, and try some others, 
which are full as common, though not altogether so con- 
venient. 

Two AND two are four. 

AB AND BC AND CA form a Triangle. 

John AND Jane are a handsome couple. 

Does AB form a triangle, BC form a triangle? &c. — Is John 
a couple ? Is Jane a couple ? — Are two four ? 

If the definition of a Conjunction is adhered to, I am afrtid 
that AND, in such instances, will appear to be no more a Con- 
junction (that is a connecter of sentences) than Though in the 
instance I have given under that word : or than But, in Mr. 
Locke's second instance : or than Else, when called by S. 
Johnson a Pronoun : or than Since, when used for Sithence or 
for Syne. In short, I am afraid that the Grammarians will 
scarcely have an entire Conjunction left : for I apprehend that 
there is not one of those words which they call Conjunctions, 
which is not sometimes used (and that very properly) without 
connecting sentences.^ 



^ '' Petnis et Paiilus disputant : .\(\. est, Peto'us disputat et Faulus dis- 
putat." — Sanctii Minerva, lib. 1. cap. 18. 

So again, lib. 3. cap. 14. : " Cicero et fiUiis valent. Figiiva Syllepsis 
est : ut, valet Cicero, et valet Jilius'' Wliicli Perizoniiis sufficiently con- 
futes, by these instances — ' Emi librum x drachmis et iv. obolis.' 
* Saulus et Paulus sunt iidem.' 

^ [Dr. Jamieson differs from Mr. Tooke with regard to the conjunction 
AND, referring its origin to the Teutonic preposition and, ant, int, nut, 
&c. Hermes Scf/fkic/fs, p. 17. — See also Grimm, who considers it as 
related to the Latin af and et : Graiiniiatik, vol. iii. p. 255, and 271. — 
Eu."l 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 119 

LEST, 

Junius only says — "Lest^ least, minimus, v. little.^' Under 
Least, he says — '' Least^ lest, minimus. Contractum est ex 
eka^Lorro^i. v. little, parvus.^^ And under Little, to which he 
refers us, there is nothing to the purpose. 

Skinner says — " Lest, ab A. S. Lsej-, minus, q. d. quo minus 
hoc fiat," 

S. Johnson says, — " Lest, Conj. (from the Adjective Least) 
That not." 

This last deduction is a curious one indeed; and it would 
puzzle as sagacious a reasoner as S. Johnson to supply the 
middle steps to his conclusion from Least (which always how- 
ever means some) to " That not " (which means none at all) . 
It seems as if, when he wrote this, he had already in his mind 
a presentiment of some future occasion in which such reasoning 
would be convenient. As thus, — " The Mother Country, the 
seat of government, must necessarily enjoy the greatest share of 
dignity, power, rights, and privileges : an united or associated 
kingdom must have in some degree a smaller share ; and their 
colonies the least share ;^^ — that is, (according to S. Johnson^) 
None of any kind, 

^ Johnson's merit ought not to be denied to him ; but his Dictionary is 
the most imperfect and faulty, and the least valuable of any of his pro- 
ductions ; and that share of merit which it possesses, makes it by so 
much the more hurtful. I rejoice, however, that though the least valuable, 
he found it the most profitable : for I could never read his Preface with- 
out shedding a tear. And yet it must be confessed, that his Grammar 
and History and Dictionary of what he calls the English language, are in 
all respects (except the bulk of the latter) most truly contemptible per- 
formances ; and a reproach to the learning and industry of a nation, which 
could receive them with the slightest approbation. 

Nearly one third of this Dictionary is as much the language of the 
Hottentots as of the English ; and it would be no difficult matter so to 
translate any one of the plainest and most popular numbers of the 
Spectator into the language of that Dictionary, that no mere Englishman, 
though well read in his own language, would be able to comprehend one 
sentence of it. 

It appears to be a work of labour, and yet is in tnith one of the most 
idle performances ever offered to the public : compiled by an author 
who possessed not one single requisite for the undertaking, and, being 
a publication of a set of booksellers, owing its success to that very cir- 
cumstance which alone must make it impossible that it should deserve 
success. 



120 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

It has been proposed by no small authority (Wallis followed 
by Lowth) to alter the spelling of lest to Least ; and vice versa. 
" Multi/^ says Wallis^ " pro Lest scribunt Least (ut distinguatur 
a Conjunctione Lestj ne, ut non) : Verum omnino contra ana- 
logiam Grammaticse. Mallem ego Adjectivum lest, Conjunc- 
tionem least scribere/^ 

"The superlative Least, ^' says Lowth, "ought rather to be 
written without the a; as Dr. Wallis has long ago observed. 
The Conjunction of the same sound might be written with the a, 
for distinction.^' 

S. Johnson judiciously dissents from this proposal, but for no 
other reason but because he thinks " the profit is not worth the 
change.'^ 

Now though they all concur in the same Etymology, I will 
venture to affirm that Lest for Lesed (as blest for blessed, &c.) 
is nothing else but the participle past of Lej-an, dimittere ; and, 
with the article That (either expressed or understood) means no 
more than hoc dimisso or quo dimisso} 

And, if this explanation and etymology of lest is right, (of 
which I have not the smallest doubt,) it famishes one caution 
more to learned critics, not to innovate rashly : Lest, whilst 
they attempt to mend a language, as they imagine, in one 
trifling respect, they mar it in others of more importance ; and 
by their corrupt alterations and amendments confirm error, and 
make the truth more difficult to be discovered by those who 
come after. 

Mr. Locke says, and it is agreed on all sides, that — " it is in 
the right use of these '^ {Particles) " that more particularly con- 
sists the clearness and beauty of a good style : ^' and that, " these 
words, which are not truly by themselves the uames of any ideas, 
are of constant and indispensable use in language ; and do much 
contribute to men's well expressing themselves." 

Now this, 1 am persuaded, would never have been said, had 

^ As LES the Imperative of Lej-an is sometimes used for unless, as 
has been already shewn under the article Utdess : so is the same Impera- 
tive LES sometimes used instead of the participle lest. 

" I knew it was past four houris of day, 
And thoclit I wald na langare ly in May ; 
Les Phoebus sukl mc losingcre attaynt." 

G. DoKfjlas, Prol. to the \^th hook of Eneados. 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 121 

these particles been understood ; for it proceeds from nothing 
but the difficulty of giving any rule or direction concerning 
their use; and that difficulty arises from a mistaken suppo- 
sition that they are not ^' by themselves the naines of any ideas : " 
and in that case indeed I do not see how any rational rules con- 
cerning their use could possibly be given. But I flatter myself 
that henceforward, the true force and nature of these words 
being clearly understood, the proper use of them will be so 
evident, that any rule concerning their use will be totally un- 
necessary : as it would be thought absurd to inform any one 
that when he means to direct an addition j he should not use a 
word which directs to take away. 

I am induced to mention this in this place, from the very 
improper manner in which lest (more than any other Con- 
junction) is often used by our best authors; those who are 
most conversant with the learned languages being most likely 
to make the mistake. — ^^You make use of such indirect and 
crooked arts as these to blast my reputation, and to possess 
men's minds with disaffection to my person; lest perad- 
venture, they might with some indifference hear reason from 
me.'' — Chillingworth's Preface to the Author of Charity main- 
tained, &c. 

Here lest is well used — " You make use of these arts : '' — 
Why ? The reason follows, — " Lej-eb that,'^ i. e. Hoc dimisso 
— "men might hear reason from me. — Therefore, — ^you use 
these arts." 

Instances of the improper use of lest may be found in 
almost every author that ever wrote in our language ; because 
none of them have been aware of the true meaning of the 
word; and have been misled by supposing it to be perfectly 
correspondent to some Conjunctions in other languages ; which 
it is not. 

Thus King Henry the Eighth, in A Necessary Doctrine, ^c, 
sixte petition, says, — " If we suffer the fyrste suggestion unto 
synne to tarry any whyle in our hartes, it is great peryll lest 
that consent and dede wyU folowe shortly after." 

Thus Ascham, in his Scholemaster, says, — " If a yong jentle- 
man will venture himselfe into the companie of ruffians, it is 
over great a jeopardie, lest their facions, maners, thoughts, 
taulke, and dedes will verie sone be over like." 



122 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I, 

Any tolerable judge of English will immediately perceive 
something aukward and improper in these sentences; though 
he cannot tell why. Yet the reason will be very plain to him, 
when he knows the meaning of these unmeaning particles (as 
they have been called) : for he will then see at once that lest 
has no business in the sentences ; there being nothing dimisso, 
in consequence of which something else would follow : and 
that, if he would employ lest, the sentences must be arranged 
otherwise. 

As, — '^ We must take heed that the first suggestion unto sin 
tarry not any while in our hearts, lest that,^^ &c. 

^^ A young gentleman should be careful not to venture him- 
self,'' &c., " lest,'' &c. 

^^ II est bon quelquefois (says Leibnitz) d' avoir la com- 
plaisance d' examiner certaines objections : car, outre que cela 
pent servir a tirer les gens de leur erreur, il pent arriver que 
nous en profitions nous-memes. Car les paralogismes spe- 
cieux renferment souvent quelque ouverture utile, et donnent 
lieu a resoudre quelques difficultes considerables. C'est pour- 
quoi j'ai toujours aime des objections ingenieuses centre mes 
propres sentiments, et je ne les ai jamais examinees sans 
fruit." ^ 

I shall, in this instance, be more complaisant than Leibnitz ; 
and will descend to examine objections which are neither 
specious nor ingenious : and the rather because (before their 
publication) the substance of the Criticisms on the Diversions of 
Purley was, with singular industry and a characteristical affecta- 
tion, gossiped by the present precious Secretary at War,' in 
Payne the bookseller's shop; the cannibal commencing with 
this modest observation, that — '^ I had found a mare's nest." * 

^ Essais de Theodicee. Biscours de la conformlte de la foi avec la 
raison. 

* [The Et.Hon. W. Windham.— Edit.] 

' This malignant and false observation was heard with an appear- 
ance of satisfaction which prudence dictated to the hearer ; and com- 
municated with that disgust which a liberal royalist always feels at 
Renegado illiberality. " No, (said my antipolitical communicating 
friend) I will never descend with him beneath even a Japanese : and 
I remember what Voltaire remarks of that country; — Le Japon ctait 
partagc en plusieurs scctes, quoique sous un roi Pontife. Mais toutes 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 123 

I shall examine them in this place, because one fourth part of 
these Criticisms (20 pages out of 79) is employed in objections 
to the derivation of unless, else, and lest: which have all 
three one meaning (viz. of Separation) j and are all, as I contend, 
portions of the same verb Lej-an. i. e. of On-lej-an, ^-lef an, 
Lej'an. 

My Norwich critics ^ (for I shall couple them) blame me, 

1. For the obscurity of my Title-page. Pag. 2.^ 

2. For the matter of my Introduction, Pag. 3. 

3. For the place of my Advertisement. Pag. 21. 

4. For a very strong propension towards inaccuracy. Pag. 2. 

5. For having " introduced one of the champions for intole- 
rance,'^ by quoting a Roman catholic bishop. Pag. 4. 

6. For the imperfection of my Anglo-Saxon alphabet. 
Pag. 22. 

7. And finally. For my politics. Pag. 32.'* 

All these I willingly abandon to their mercy and discretion ; 
although they have not shewn any symptoms of either. 

But 1 should be sorry if any of my readers were hastily misled 
by them to believe, 

les sectes se reunissaient dans les memes principes de Morales. Ceux 
qui croiaient la metempsycose, et ceux qui n'y croiaient pas, s'abste- 
naient, et s'abstienuent encore aujourdhui, de manger la cJiair des 
animaux qui rendent service a Vhomme'^ 

^ [See Additional Notes.] 

^ " Vix plane a me impetrare possum, quin exemplum sequar Fetri 
Francisci Giambullarii, qui libiiim suum de linguae Florentinas origine 
scriptum, a Johannis Baptista Gellii, viri sibi amicitia et studiis conjunc- 
tissimi, <;ognomine, quern in scribendo socium et consiliarium habuit, II 
Gello nuncupari voluit. Perinde quidem et mihi Thwaitesii nomine 
librum nostmm inscribendo, si per modestiam ejus liceret, nobis facien- 
dum esset." — G. Riches. 

' Mr. Secretary and his secretaiy will not be surprised that their 
disapprobation does not move me ; when they consider that, as far as 
corrupt and unbridled power has been able to enforce the decree, I have, 
on account of these politics, been, for the last thirty years, robbed of the 
fair use of life, interdictus aqua et igni : and, by what I can prognos- 
ticate, I suppose I am still to lay down my life for them. I might 
have quitted them, as Mr. Secretary has done, and have received 
the reward of my treacheiy. But my politics will never be 
changed, nor be kept back on any occasion : and whilst I have 
my life, it will neither be embittered by any regret for the past, nor 
fear for the future. 



124 ETYMOLOGY OP THE [PART I. 

1st. That " Grammar was one of the First arts which pro- 
bably engaged the attention of the curious." Pag. 4. 

For the contrary is not a matter of conjecture, but of his- 
torical fact : and whoever pleases may know at what precise 
period Grammar, as an art, had its commencement in every 
nation of Europe. 

Or 2dly. That " The desire which arises in the mind, next 
to that of communicating thought, is certainly to use such 
signs as will convey the meaning clearly and precisely." 
Pag. 19. 

For a desire of communicating thought, and a desire of con- 
veying our meaning clearly and precisely (though expressed by 
different words), are not two desires, but one desire : for as 
far as our meaning is not conveyed clearly and precisely, it is 
not conveyed at all; so far there is no communication of 
thought. 

Or 3dly. That " This desire of conveying our meaning 
clearly and precisely naturally leads to the use of abbrevia- 
tions: and that abbreviations seem to bear a much stronger 
affinity to the desire of perspicuity than to that of dispatch." 
Pag. 20. 

For, to satisfy himself that the desire of clearness and per- 
spicuity does not lead to the use of abbreviations, (which are 
substitutes,) any person needs only to consult the legal instru- 
ments of any civilized nation in the world : for in these instru- 
ments, perspicuity or clearness is the only object. Now these 
legal instruments have always been, and always must be, 
remarkably more tedious and prolix than any other writings, 
in which the same clearness and precision are not equally im- 
portant. For abbreviations open a door for doubt ; and, by the 
use of them, what we gain in time we lose in precision and 
certainty. In common discourse we save time by using the 
short substitutes he and she and they and it; and (with a 
little care on one side and attention on the other) they answer 
our purpose very well ; or if a mistake happens, it is easily set 
right. But this substitution will not be risqued in a legal 
instrument ; and the drawer thinks himself compelled, for the 
sake of certainty, to say — he (the said John A.) to him (the 
said Thomas B.) for them (the said William C. and Anne 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 125 

D.) as often as those persons are mentioned.^ And for the same 
reason he is compelled to employ many other prolixities of the 
same kind. 

Or 4thly. That ^' A desire of variety gave birth to Pronouns 
in language, which otherwise would not have appeared in it.^' 
Pag. 20. 

For Pronouns prevent variety. 

Or 5thly. That " Articles and Pronoims are neither Nouns 
nor Verbs.'' Pag. 26. 

For I hope hereafter to satisfy the reader that they are 
nothing else_, and can be nothing else. 

Or 6thly. That Johnson considered Skinner as so ignorant 
that his authority ought not to be regarded. Pag. 39.^ 

For Johnson speaks of him as one whom " he ought not to 
mention but with the reverence due to his instructor and bene- 
factor/' and to whom he was chiefly indebted for his northern 
etymologies.^ 

Or 7thly. That I have myself represented Junius as a " very 
careless and ignorant" writer. Pag. 51.^ 

For (under the article an) I have noticed " the judicious 
distinction which Johnson has made between Junius and 
Skinner." And when I had occasion (under the article but) 
to say that he was careless and ignorant concerning that par- 
ticular word, I mentioned it as " wonderful,^' But thus these 

^ Abbreviations and substitutes undoubtedly cannot safely be trusted in 
legal instruments. But it is an unnecessary prolixity and great absurdity 
which at present prevails, to retain the substitute in these writings at the 
same time with the principal, for which alone the substitute is ever 
inserted, and for which it is merely a proxy. He, she, they, it, who, 
WHICH, &c. should have no place in these instruments, but be altogether 
banished from them. And I know a Solicitor of eminence who, at my 
suggestion, near twenty years ago, did banish them. 

^ Skinner, indeed, translates Onlej-an, or rather ^STlef an, to dismiss. 
" But Skinner is often ignorant," says Dr. Johnson. 

^ "For the Teutonic etymologies I am commonly indebted to Junius 
and Skinner, the only names which I have forborn to quote when I copied 
their books : not that I might appropriate their labours or usurp their 
honours, but that I might spare a perpetual repetition by one general 
acknowledgment. These I ought not to mention but with the reverence 
due to instructors and benefactors." — Johnsons Preface. 

* " You have here, however, the authority of Junius, who puts down 
these verbs as being the origin ; but I have yours to say, that he was 
sometimes very careless and ignorant." — Page 5'1 of the Criticisms. 



126 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

critics meanly attempt to mislead their readers : catching at the 
word ignorant (which when applied to a person in a particular 
instance, means only that he did not know that particular 
thing,) in order fraudulently to fasten an imputation of general 
ignorance. 

Or 8thly. That those who have spelled less with a single s, 
were not " civilized people :"'^\. e. (I suppose) not capable of the 
accustomed relations of peace and amity. 

Or 9thly. That " The blemishes of Johnson^s Dictionary are 
not of the kind quas iiicuria fudit, but the result of too much 
nicety and exactness/^ Pag. 46. — But of this in another place : 
for it is of more consequence than any thing which relates to 
these Norwich critics. 

Or lOthly. That it requires much practice in the Anglo- 
Saxon or old English writers, and much attention to the cir- 
cumstance, to observe " the various spellings of one and the 
same word in the language.^' ^ 

For not only are almost all the words spelled differently by 
different authors ; but even by the same author, in the same 
book, in the same page, and frequently in the same line. 

Or llthly. That I "desire to pass my sentiments upon 
others, as articles of faith.^^ Pag. 76.^ 

My critics commence with a solemn protestation, that they 
" aim at nothing but a fair representation of the truth." 
Pag. V. 

^ " The orthography of this word, I presume to say, is less. And it 
should seem as if civiHzed people had no other way of spelling it." — 
Page 40. 

^ *' My taste for the Anglo-Saxon has never induced me to attend to 
the various spellings of one and the same word in the language." — Page 
51 of the Criticisms. 

^ This groundless apprehension is not unnatural in one of my critics. 
He startles at his own expression — an article of faith. But fear not me, 
Cassander. I pay the same regard to a sickly conscience that I do 
to a sickly appetite : and I have known those who, like some honest 
sectaries, have fainted at the smell of roast beef. No, I shall never 
wish to impose articles of faith on others, though I am not scared at 
their imposition upon me. I am a willing conformist to all that is not 
fatal. 1 would surely reject poison, i. e. power in the priesthood, and 
des])otism any where ; but otherwise I am not dainty ; and can feed 
heartily upon any wholesome food, both in the church and out of it ; 
although it might happen to be coarse and not overpleasing to my 
palate. 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 127 

Yet twice in the 7tli page, and twice in the 8th page, and 
again in the 25th page of the Criticisms, they pretend to 
quote my words ; and falsely, to serve their own purpose^ 
insert a word of their own. My words are — '^^Abbreviations 
employed for the sake of dispatch. ^^ They, five times repeat- 
edly, assert that my words are — ^*^ words necessary for dis- 
patch.'' 

In their 8th page they twice assert that I " rank ArticleSy 
Prepositions, and Conjunctions, under the title of Abbrevia- 
tions:'' and in their 11th page they assert, that I have made 
" Abbreviations the principal object of the work '' I have pub- 
lished, i. e. of the first edition of this volume. 

I hope I have there spoken with sufficient clearness to make 
it impossible for any attentive reader to fall into such an error ; 
or to suppose that I have hitherto spoken one word about those 
Abbreviations which compose my second class. It is evident 
however that my Critics made no such mistake, but falsified 
the matter willfully : for, in their 35th page, they contradict 
their own previous statement, and acknowledge the fact. — 
'' Conjunctions in your system (say they) are not separate parts 
of speech, but words belonging to the species either of Nouns 
or Verbs.'' 

I hardly think it necessary to inform the reader, that I have 
hitherto spoken little of the Noun, nothing of the Verb, and 
nothing of the Abbreviations ; but have chiefly employed my- 
self to get rid of the false doctrine concerning Conjunctions, 
Prepositions and Adverbs. The method I have taken may 
perhaps be injudicious : indeed I have been told so : I may 
perhaps have begun at the wrong end : but I did it not wan- 
tonly or carelessly, but after the most mature reflection, and 
with the view of lessening the difficulties and sparing the labour 
of those who may chuse to proceed with me in this inquiry. 
Perhaps, when we come to the close of it, my readers will feel 
with me (they will hardly feel so forcibly as I do) the justness 
of the following reflection of Mr. Necker — " Je reviens a mon 
triste travail. On aura peine, je le crains, a se former une idee 
de son etendue ; car, en resultat, tout devient simple : et I'un 
des premiers effets de la methode, c'est de cacher les difficultes 
vaincues : aussi dans les plus grandes choses comme dans les 



128 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

plus petites, tous ceux qui jouissent de Pordre n'en connoissent 
pas le merite/^ ^ 

lu their 13th page, they say, that " It is evideut from my 
words, that, in my opinion, Mr. Locke was no better than in a 
mist when he wrote his famous Essay/' 

In their 12th page, they represent me (who have denied any 
abstract or complex ideas) as affirming — " that, in my opinion, 
it is the term that gives birth to the abstract idea/' 

Because I have, in the 255th page of my first edition, ob- 
served that " it is contrary to the customary progress of cor- 
ruption in words to gain letters;'' and in the 131st page, that 
" Letters, like soldiers, are very apt to desert and drop off in a 
long march : "—they twice, in their 41st page, represent me as 
denying the possibility that any word should ever gain a letter,' 
or be written by any succeeding author with more letters than 
by his predecessor. 

Because I have, in the 218th page of my first edition, given 
the corresponding Terminations in the other northern lan- 
guages ; which terminations I suppose likewise, as well as less 
(which is not a modern English imperative) to have been 
originally the imperatives of their verbs; they, in their 44th 
page, and again in their 46th page, charge me with " contend- 
ing " that LOOS (so written) is the present modern imperative in 
Dutch. 

In their 55th page, though I call Douglas (in the very place 
alluded to by them) " one of the most common of our old 
English authors ; " they would make their readers believe that 
I produce him '' as an Anglo-Saxon writer." 

In the conclusion of their Criticisms they say — " Professor 
Schultens was the first philologist who suspected Prepositions, 
Conjunctions, Particles in general to be no more than Nouns 
or Verbs J and refused therefore to make separate classes of them, 
among those that comprehend the Parts of Speech. But he 
confined himself in the application of this truth to the learned 
languages. You are the first who applied it to those which are 
called modern." 

^ Nouveaux Eclaircissemeiis sur le Comte Rendu. 
^ 1 liad given instances in Unles, JFhiles, Amiddes, AmongeSj which 
afterwards became Unless, Whilst, Amidst, Amongst. 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 129 

These are the gentlemen who commence with a solemn pro- 
testation, that they " aim at nothing but a fair representation 
of the truth.^' And yet, in the above extract, there is not a 
single proposition that does not convey more than one willful 
falsehood. 

I will here insert the whole which Schultens has said upon 
the subject. 

'^ Sectio v. lxv. Partes orationis Hebrseis eaedem quae 
Graecis, Latinis, omnibus populis. Ad tres classes concinne 
satis omnes illae partes revocari solent, Yerbum, Nomen,*Pfl!r- 
ticulam. Ab Arabibus distinctionem banc hausere primi 
grammatici Hebraeorum. In Gjarumia babes. Partes orationis 
tres sunt, Nomen, et Verbum, et Particula, quae venit in sig- 
nificationem. Apud Rabbinos similiter Nomen, Actio, id est 
Verbum, et Vox, sive Particula. Veteres Stoici quatuor classes 
fecere. Alii plures, alii pauciores adhuc, solo Nomine et Verbo 
contenti. Optima divisio Theodectis, et Aristotelis, apud Dion. 
Halic. in Opofiara, PrjfiaTa, JIvvBea/juov^. Earn laudat unice 
Quintil. Nomina, Verba, et Convinctiones, reddens : ut nomina 
exhibeant materiam, verba vim sermonis, in convinctionibus 
autem complexus eorum indicetur. Consulendus de hisce G. J, 
Voss. qui dubium censet utrum Orientales hac in re imitati sint 
Graecos, an Graeci potius secuti sint exemplum Orientalium. 
Mihi Arabes ex Aristotele hausisse, planissume liquet/' 

The above is a mere transcript from Vossius, to whom 
Schultens very fairly refers us.^ He then proceeds to apply 
this doctrine in the Hebrew language alone. — "Idem dixerim 



^ " De numero partium orationis diu est, quod tribus grammaticae 
controversantur. Antiquissima eorum est opinio, qui tres faciunt 
classes. Estque hsec Arabura quoque sententia, quibus hse classes vo- 
cantur Nomen, Verbum, et Particula. Hebrsei quoque (qui cum Arabes 
grammaticam scribere desinerent, artem earn demum scribere coeperunt ; 
quod ante annos contigit circiter quadringentos) Hebraei, inquam, hac 

in re secuti sunt magistros suos Arabes Imo vero trium classiura 

numerum aliae etiam Orientis linguae retinent. Dubium, utrum ea in 
re Orientales imitati sint antiquos Grsecorum : an hi potius secuti sint 
Orientalium exemplum. Utut est, etiam veteres Graecos tres tantum 
partes agnovisse, non solum autor est Dionysius : sed etiam Quinctilia- 
nus testatur, ubi hanc Aristotelis ipsius, ac Theodectis sententiara 
fuisse docet. Idem que de veteribus Graecis testatur Rabbinus iste 
qui, &c. 

K 



130 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

de methodo grammaticam texendi secundum has orationis 
partes. Arabes et Judsei a Verbo incipere sclent, quod tan- 
quam radix sit, unde Nomina et Particulse propagentur, 

" Verba nempe tanquam radices sunt unde Nomina propa- 
gantur, variis formis, et terminationibus : itemque Particulse; 
sub quibus Pronomina, Adverbia, Prsepositiones, Conjunctiones, 
et Interjectiones continentur. Et barum densa ilia sylva a 
Nominibus ferme succrevit, quin ad classem Nominum maseimam 
partem referenda." 

'^ Sbctio VI. xci. A Nomine pergimus ad Particulas. Eas 
recte dividunt in separatas et inseparabiles. Minus commoda 
distinctio cl. Altingii inter particulas declinabiles et indeclina- 
biles. Ad priores refert pronomina. Ad posteriores adverbia, 
prsepositiones, conjunctiones, et interjectiones : Atqui et prono- 
mina qusedam non declinantur, et bona pars adverbiorum ac 
prsepositionum patitur declinationem, quippe quse maximam 
partem sunt Nomina, vel Substantiva, vel Adjectiva. Hoc si 
perspexissent primi grammatici, multo felicius naturam, vim, 
mutationem, et constructionem particularum expedire valuissent." 

^^xcvi. Particulas reliquas, sub quibus adverbia, prsepo- 
sitiones, conjunctiones, et interjectiones comprensse, minus rite 
indeclinabiles vocari, quod re vera declinentur, pi'cesertim ad- 
verbia et prsepositiones ; utpote veri nominis substantiva vel 
adjectiva, maximam partem. Kectius in separatas et insepara- 
biles dirimuntur. Separatarum classes distinctius subnotabo : 
atque sub singulis specimina quaedam exliibebo. — Sic reliqua 
sunt originis vel substantiva vel adjectiva. Horum enucleatio 
ampliora exigit spatia. Nonnulla infra tangentur. 



" Atque ex Arabibiis grammatiois eandem sequitin* G-iarumicE autor 
Muliamed Sanliagius. Postea autem antiquissimi Stoieorum quatuor 

classes fecerunt Imo nee defuei-e, qui alias asserendo divisioues 

ampliorem facerent numerum Partium Orationis. Quorum omnium 
autor nobis Dionysius Halicarnassensis. Addam et insignem locum 
Quinctiliani, — ' Veteres, quorum fuerunt Aristoteles quoque, atque 
Theodectes, Verba modo et Nomina et Convinctiones tradiderunt. Vi- 
delicet, quod in verbis vim sermonis, in nominibus materiam, in con- 
vinctionibiis autem coniplexum eorum esse judicaverunt.' — Sed ut omnis 
hsec disputatio melius intelligatur, non abs re erit, si quae a Dionysio et 
Prisciano scribuntur accuratius expendamus. Dueb sunt principes partes, 
Nomcn et Verbum : de quibus solis iccirco Aristoteles agit libro 
116/34 (pfit]vfias." — G. J. Vossias De Arte Gram. lib. 3. cap. 1. 



CH, Vlli.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 131 

*'^Apud Latinos quoqiie conjunctiones mult(2 a nominibus 
oriund(B, ut Verum. Vero. Verum Enimvero. Quemadmodum, 
Quamquam. Additum et verbum in Quamlibet. Quolibet. 
Quovis. Merum verbum est Licet, &c. De adverbiis et prse- 
positionibus idem submonitum velim/^ 

Thus it appears that Schultens^ without reasoning at all upon 
the subject, took the old division of language exactly as he 
found it; and, with his predecessors on the Oriental tongues, 
considered and ranked the Particles as a distinct part of speech. 
But he condemns the subdivision of particles into declinable and 
indeclinable, and proposes to divide them into separate and 
inseparable. 

In my opinion neither of these distributions is blameable in 
the grammar of a particular language, whose object is only to 
assist a learner of that language : but the one subdivision is 
just as unphilosophical as the other. If the Particles are all 
merely Nouns or Verbs, they are equally so whether used 
separately or not. The term inseparable, instead of not 
separated, is likewise justifiable in Schultens, Avho confined 
himself to a dead language ; and who did not intend to con- 
sider the nature of general speech : for, in a dead language, 
authority is every thing ; and those words which cannot be 
found to have been used separately by those who bequeathed 
it, are to us (speaking or writing it) not only not separate but 
inseparable. 

But Schultens no where asserts that these particles are all 
nouns or verbs ; nor does he adduce a single argument on the 
subject. He evidently supposes that there might be particles 
which were neither nouns nor verbs : for, besides the separate 
rank which he allows them, his words are always carefully 
coupled when he speaks of these particles. He confines them 
to Nouns, substantiva vel adjectiva (he never adds Verba, which 
my Critics have modestly slipped in for him) ; but even then 
he always scrupulously repeats — bona pars, multae. maximam 
partem, ferme. prcesertim. originis. oriundce. propagantur. re^ 
ferenda. specimina qucedam. Nonnulla tangentur. Horum 
enucleatio ampliora exigit spatia. — In which (so far from being 
" the first who suspected it '^) he carefully and closely adopts 
the qualifying expressions of very many grammarians (espe- 
cially Latin grammarians) who had used the same long before 

K 2 



133 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART T. 

him. Many of these I have cited, who went much further in 
the doctrine than he has done : for it surely was not my busi- 
ness to sink them ; but to avail myself of their partial authority, 
and to recommend my general doctrine by their partial hints 
and suspicions. 

But my Critics, who say that Schultens suspected, in five 
lines further impudently convert this suspicion into a Truth, 
which they represent him as having demonstrated, or at least 
asserted : and with equal effrontery they tell us, he applied it 
to the dead languages; and that I applied his Truth to those 
which are called modern. 

It is however of little consequence to the reader from what 
quarter he may receive a discovered truth ; or (if it be a dis- 
covery) whose name it may bear ; nor do I feel the smallest 
anxiety on the subject. But bear with my infirmity, reader, 
if it be an infirmity. — The enemies of the established civil 
liberties of my country have hunted me through life, without a 
single personal charge against me through the whole course of 
my life ; but barely because I early descried their conspiracy, 
and foresaw and foretold the coming storm, and have to the 
utmost of my power legally resisted their corrupt, tyrannical 
and fatal innovations and usurpations : They have destroyed 
my fortunes : They have illegally barred and interdicted my 
usefulness to myself, my family, my friends, and my country : 
They have tortured my body : ^ They have aimed at my life and 
honour: — Can you wonder that, whilst one of these critics 
takes a cowardly advantage (where I could make no defence) 
to brand me as an acquitted Felon, I am unwilling (where I can 
make a defence) that he should, in conjunction with his anony- 
mous associate, exhibit me as a convicted plagiary and impos- 
tor? But no more of these cowardly assassins. I consign 



^ The antient legal and mild imprisonment of tliis country (mild both 
in manner and duration, compared to what we now see) was always 
held to be Torture and even civil death. What would our old, honest, 
uncorrupted lawyers and judges (to whom and to the law of the land 
the word close was in abhorrence), what would they have said to seven 
months of close custody, such as I have lately suffered, without a charge, 
without a legal authority (for their own monstrous law, which arbi- 
trarily suspended the Habeas Corpus, did not authorize close custody), 
and without even the most flimsy pretence of any occasion for it ? 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 183 

them to the lasting contempt they have well earned, and which 
no future Title will ever be able to obliterate from the name of 
Windham. 

It may however be useful to examine the objections to my 
explanation of unless, else, and lest ; which are to be found 
in pages 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51, 52, 53, 
Q7y 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, of The Criticisms on the Diversions of 
Purley. 

Four instances are produced, and only four, in which it is 
contended that my solution cannot be admitted. 

" I have already observed ^' (say the Critics, page 53) "that 
it [^lej-an] is not susceptible of the signification you have 
all along affixed to it as its primary one ; but let us suppose it 
to signify Dismiss, and nothing besides ; we shall find many 
phrases in which else will hardly bear to be resolved into 
Hoc dimisso : ^ witness the following. Nothing else. How else. 
What else. Where else." 

To have a proof of the solidity or futility of this objection, we 
must have compleat sentences. 

Example 1. Nothing else. 

You shaU have a fooFs cap for your pains ; and Nothing 
else. 

Resolution. — You shall have a fooPs cap for your pains ; 
and Nothing but a fool's cap. 

i. e. But for Be-out. 

You shall have a fool's cap for your pains ; and Nothing 
except a fooPs cap. 

You shall have a fool's cap for your pains ; and, if not a 
fool's cap. Nothing. 

You shall have a fool's cap for your pains ; and, dismiss the 
fool's cap. Nothing. 

Example 2. How else. 
If a nation's liberties cannot be secured by a fair represent- 
ation of the people ; How else can they be secured ? 

Resol. — If a nation's liberties cannot be secured by a fair 



^ I have said that else is the Imperative of TClefan, and means Diniitle, 
but they give what they please as ray words. 



134 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

representation of the people; without it. How can they be 
isecured ? i. e. Without for Be-out. 

If a nation^s liberties cannot be secured by a fair represent- 
ation of the people ; except by a fair representation of the 
people. How can they be secured ? 

If a nation's liberties cannot be secured by a fair represent- 
ation of the people ; dismiss it, (i. e. a fair representation of the 
people,) How can they be secured ? 

Example S. What else. 

You have shewn impotence and malice enough ; What else 
have you shewn? 

Resol. — You have shewn impotence and malice enough; 
What have you shewn but impotence and malice ? Or, What 
BUT them have you shewn ? 

You have shewn impotence and malice enough; except 
them, (i. e. impotence and malice,) What have you shewn ? 

You have shewn impotence and malice enough; dismiss 
them, What have you shewn ? 

Example 4. Where else. 

Honour should reside in the breast of a king ; although it 
might not be found any Where else. 

Resol. — Honour should reside in the breast of a king; al- 
though, except in the breast of a king, it might not be found 
any where. 

Honour should reside in the breast of a king; although, 
dismiss (i. e. Leave out, Take away, &c.) the breast of a king, it 
might not be found any where. 

Having thus, as I trust, satisfactorily resolved the only in- 
stances they have produced as irreconcileable with my etymo- 
logy ; I will proceed to consider their other objections. 

I. — They say — " The Latin, the Italian, the French, make 
use here [that is, where the English use unless] of the word 
Except." P. 38. 

The Latin commonly employs Ni si. i. e. Ne sit, the negative 
preceding the verb : the Italian, Se non, and the French, Si ne. 
i. e. Sit non, Sit ne, the negative following the verb : Instances 
have been already given of the same conjunctive use of Be not, 
or Be it not, in English. The Italians sometimes use In fuori, 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 135 

Senza che ; and^ if they please, the participle Eccetto : the 
French also sometimes use Si non que, Si ce n'est que, ^A moins 
que, ^A moins de ; and, if they please, the imperative Excep- 
tez, or the participle Excepte. And any word or words di- 
recting SEPARATION (and none other) in onr own, or in any 
other language, will always be equivalent to unless. And, 
instead of being an objection, I think this circumstance strongly 
enforces my etymology. 

II. — ^' If there be such a verb [as Onlef an] in the Anglo- 
Saxon, it must be the same as Onlef on, a compound of On 
and Leran.'' P. 39. 

Why it should be doubted that there is any such verb as 
Onlefan in the Anglo-Saxon, I cannot imagine; but if any 
one, beside my Critics, should entertain such a doubt, it may 
easily be removed by opening Lye's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary; 
where both Onlef an and Onlyf an will be found, with various 
references to the places where they are used. But that Onle- 
ron should be preferred by the Critics to Onlef an, is truly 
extraordinary ; 'Kn being the common termination of the Anglo- 
Saxon Infinitives. 

III. — " Lef an in the Anglo-Saxon does not signify to Dis- 
miss. Lef an in its primary signification means to unbind ; in 
its secondary, to redeem, to unload, to set at liberty. Solvere, 
redimere, liberare, says the dictionary. In the first sense it 
answers to the English to Loosen, i. e. to make loosed' P. 39. 

" It is possible that les should be the Imperative of Lef an ; 
but LESS can have no pretensions to it." P. 40. 

^^No sooner has the imperative of the Anglo-Saxon verb 
Lefan shewn itself with you in one form, than it appears in 
another. In the very next article to that we are upon here, 
you suppose it to be, not les, but leas. But it will be said, 
how can Leaj- be the imperative of Lej^an ? — Certain it is, that 
the verb Le^an is here all of a sudden transformed into Leoj-an, 
in consequence of which its alliance with the affix Lear 
becomes unquestionable. But Leof an signifies perdere, and 
is the same verb with the English to Lose.'' P. 41. 

If the reader will cast his eye over the following column, he 
will find that no transformation has been suddenly made by 
me ; and that the alteration of a letter in the spelling of les. 



1^6 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

LESS and leas, will be no reasonable objection to the etymo- 
logy- 

AAnSQAN. M. Goth. Imperat. AAflS. 

Lofijan 

Lofian 

Loepan 

Leofian 

Leofan Imperat. Laef . 

Lej-an Imperat. Lej-, ^^rr> I^^ff^- 

Lij^an 

Lf f an 

S'-lefan .... Imperat. ^lef . 

S'-lij-an 

^-lyfan 

Eop-leofan 

Pop-lyj-an 

On-lej^an .... Imperat. Onlej*. 

On-lyj"an. 

Under all tbese shapes this word appears in the Anglo-Saxon 
language : for I take them all to be one and the same verb, dif- 
ferently pronounced, and therefore differently spelled. And 
from this Gothic and Anglo-Saxon verb, I imagine, proceed 
not only the conjunctions, as they are called, unless, else, 
and lest, and the privative termination less, together with less 
the adjective, as it is called, and the comparative less, and the 
superlative least ; but also 

To Lose Lost. A Loss. 

To Loose .... Loose. 

To Un-loose 

To Loosen 

To Un-loosen 

To Lessen 

To Lease .... A Lease. 

To Release ... A Release, A Lease and Release. 

To go a Leasing} 

^ Leasing, i. e. Loosing, i. e. picking up that which is Loose (i. e. 
Loosed) separate (i. e. separated) or detached {detacJie) from tlie sheaf.* 



* Sheaf, (A.S. j-ceap. Dutch Schoof,) which we call a substantive, is 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 137 

And however this word (for they are all one) may be now 
differently spelled^ and differently used and applied in modem 
English; the reader will easily perceive that separation is 
always invariably signified in every use and application of it.* 

I will give a few instances, out of very many, to show how 
variously our old English writers spelled and used this same 
word. 

" Pardoun and life to thir teris gif we, 
(Quod Priamiis) and mercy grantis fre. 
And first of all the mannakiliis and hard bandis 
Chargeit he LOUS of this ilk mannis handis.. 

Bot than the tothir wicht. 

Full weil instrukkit of Grekis art and slicht, 
LousiT and laitlye fred of all his bandis, 
Unto the sternis heuit up his handis." 

Bougldr 

" Bewalit thair feris losit on the flude." 

" That we thy blud, thy kinrent, and ofspring 
Has LOSiT our schippis." 

" The grete lois of Anchises regi*eting sare. 

And altogidir gan to wepe and rare." 
" For neuir syne with ene saw I her eft, 

Nor neuer abak, fra sche was loist or reft, 

Blent I agane." 
" His nauy loist reparellit I but fale. 

And his feris fred from the deitli alhale." 

* " Clavumque affixus et haerens 

Nusquam A-mittehat.'^ ^neis, lib. 5. 

He neyev sefit f?'om his hand. He never j9«r^^^ with. Jle never missed 
his hold. He never let go his hold. He never lost his hold. He never 
loosed his hold. He never let go. 



, booke 2 


.p. 


43. 


booke 1, 


.p. 


19. 


booke 1, 


.p. 


20. 


booke 5. 


P- 


148. 


booke 2 


.p. 


. 63. 


booke 4. 


P- 


112. 



no other than the past participle j-ceap (or j^ceajzob) from the verb j^cu- 
jzian ; which past participle in modern English we write slwce (or shoved). 
Sheaf means, that which is shov'd together. N.B. The past participle 
in the Anglo-Saxon is usually formed by adding ob (which we now 
write ed) to the prsetei-perfect ; but the prseterperfect itself is often 
used (both in Anglo-Saxon and in English) for the past participle, with- 
out the termination ob or ed. Now the prseterperfect of j-cupian is 
j*cea]z. 

Shaft (A.S. j-ceapt), which seems to us so different a word from 
Sheaf, is yet no other than the same past participle j-ceapob, pceapb, 
pceapt. Slmft means that which is shov'd. 



138 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

" Bewaland gretelye in his mynde pensife. 
For that his freyud was fall, and loist his life." 

booke 5. p. 157. 
" Desist, Drances, be not abasit, 1 pray, 
'For thou sail neuer leis, schortlie I the say, 
Be my wappin nor this rycht hand of myne 
Sic any peuishe and cative saule as thine." 

booke 11. p. 377. 
" But yet LESSE thou do worse, take a wyfe : 
Bet is to wedde, than brenne in worse wyse." 

D?'eame of Chaucer, fol. 259. p. 2. col. 2. 
" And on his way than is he forthe yfare 
In hope to ben lessed of his care." 

Chaucer, Frankelepis Tale, fol. 54. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Now let us stynt of Troylus a stounde. 
That fareth lyke a man that hurt is sore. 
And is som dele of akyng of his wounde 
Ylessed well, but heled no dele more." 

Tro2/lus, boke 1. fol. 163. p. 1. col. 1. 
*' And gladly lese his owne right. 
To make an other lese his." 

Gower, lib. 2. fol. 28. p. 2. col. 2. 
" Lo wherof sorcerie serueth. 
Through sorcerie his loue he chese ; 
Through sorcerie his life he lese." 

lib. 5. fol. 137. p. 1. col. 1. 
" For unto loues werke on night 
Hym lacketh both will and might. 
No wondre is in lustie place 
Of loue though he lese grace." 

lib. 7. fol. 143. p. 1. col 2. 
" It fit a man by wey of kynde 
To loue, but it is not kinde 
A man for loue his wit to lese." 

lib. 7. fol. 167. p. 1. col. 2. 
" Wyne maketh a man to lese wretchedly 
His mynde, and his lymmes euerychone." 

Chaucer, Sompiers Tale, fol. 44. p. 1. col. 1. 
** There may nothing, so God my soule saue, 
Lykyng to you, that may displese me ; 
Ne I desire nothyng for to haue, 
Ne cb-cd for to lese, saue onely ye." 

Clerke of Oxenfordes Talc, fol. 48. p. 1. col. 1. 



en. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 139 

" Him neded none helpe, if he ne had no money that he myght lese." 
— -Boecius, boke 3. fol. 233. p. 1. col. 1. 

" Al shulde T dye, I wol her herte seche, 
I shal no more lesen but my speche." 

Troylus, boke 5. fol. 194. p. 3. col. 2. 
"If so be that thou art myghtye ouer thy selfe, that is to sayne, by 
tranqujdlyte of thy soule, than haste thou thynge in thy power, that thou 
noldest neuer lesen." — Boecius, boke 3. fol. 337. p. 3. col. 3. 
" The maister leseth his tyme to lere 
Whan the disciple wol not here." 

Romaunt of the Rose, fol. 130. p. 1. col. 1. 
*' Ha, how grete harme, and skaith for euermare 
That child has caucht, throw lesing of his moder." 

Douglas, booke 3. p. 79. 
IV. — '' Skiimer^ Minsliew and Johnson agree in deriving it 
[else] from the Greek aXXo)? or the Latin alias. There is 
indeed as much reason to suppose that the Greeks and Latins 
borrowed the word from the Germans^ as that these borrowed 
it from them. — Al and el may be said to convey the same idea 
as the Greek a\X«9 and the Latin alias ; and_, if so, why should 
we have recourse to the verb 7f lef an to find their origin ? ^' — 
p. 52. 

This is truly curious : else from aW(o<; or alias ; although 
there is as much reason to suppose that the Greeks and Latins 
borrowed the word from the Germans, as that these borrowed 
it from them. 

But AL and el convey the same idea as aWco^ and alias : — 
What is that idea ? ' This is a question which my Critics never 
ask themselves ; and yet it is the only rational object of ety- 
mology. These gentlemen seem to think that translation is 
explanation. Nor have they ever yet ventured to ask them- 
selves what they mean, when they say that any word comes 
from, is derived from, produced from, originates from, or gives 
birth to, any other word. Their ignorance and idleness make 
them contented with this vague and misapplied metaphorical 
language : and if we should beg them to consider that words 
have no locomotive faculty, that they do not flow like rivers, 
nor vegetate like plants, nor spiculate like salts, nor are gene- 
rated like animals ; they would say, we quibbled with them ; 
and might perhaps in their fury be tempted to exert against 
us " a vigour beyond the lawJ^ And yet, untill they can get 



140 , ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

rid of these metaphors from their minds, they will not them- 
selves be fit for etymology, nor furnish any etymology fit for 
reasonable men. 

V. — ^^ As there is an equivalent in the French of the word 
UNLESS, very much resembling it in turn, it is somewhat ex- 
traordinary that it should never have occurred to you, that 
possibly the one is a translation, or at least an imitation of the 
other. This equivalent is A moins que. What word more 
likely to have given birth to unless ; if we may suppose the 
latter to be a compound of on and less ? '^ P. 39. 

" You add in a note— ^ It is the same imperative les, placed 
at the end of nouns and coalescing with them, which has given 
to our language such adjectives as Hopeless, Restless, &c.' — 
These words have been all along considered as compounds of 
Hope, Rest, &c. and the adjective Less, Anglo-Saxon Leaj*, 
and Dutch Loos : and this explanation is so natural, so clear 
and satisfactory, that it is inconceivable how a man, who has 
any notion of neatness and consistency in etymological disqui- 
sitions, could ever think of their being compounds of a noun, 
and the imperative of the verb Lefan. Leas and Loos are 
still extant, this in the Dutch, and that in the Anglo-Saxon 
language : and both answer to the Latin solutus in this phrase 
soliitus cura. 

' — "Multa adjectiva formantur ex substantivis addendo 
affixum negativum Leaj- vel Leaj-e. Hinc apud nos Carelesse, 
&c. Sciendum vero est Leaf Anglo- Saxonicum deduci a 
M. Gothico Laus, quod significat liber, solutus, vacuus, et in 
compositione privationem vel defectum denotat. Hickes, A.S. 
Gram. p. 42. 

"Dr. Johnson gives us, in his Dictionary, the following 
deduction of the word lest ; — ' Lest, conjunction from the 
adjective least. That not.' " P. 70. "Your improvement upon 
Dr. Johnson is, Lezed^ that, i. e. Hoc dimisso. Is it not 

^ " Lezed.'' — They misrepresent my words just as it suits their pur- 
pose. I have said lesed, not lezed. They have not introduced the z 
here by accident ; for the change is important to the etymology. We 
could never arrive at lest from lezed : for (when the vowel between 
them is removed) z must be followed by n in pronunciation, as s by T. 
— Take the word Greased for an instance : if you remove the vowel, you 
must cither pronounce it Greaz'd, or Greas't. 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 141 

astonishing tliat a man should plume himself on having substi- 
tuted this strange and far-fetched manner of speaking, for the 
easy and natural explanation which precedes?" P. 71. 

" Lest, in the sense of That not, or the Ne empfiaticum of 
the Latin, is generally written in the ancient language thus, 
L^sT. And as Lsef is used also in the Anglo-Saxon for the 
comparative of lytel, parvus, it is evident that ^ laep answers 
to the modern the, or that less. ^ IsefC, to that least, 
supple, OF all things." P. 72. 

I may answer them in the language of Shakespeare, 

" merely ye are death's fools ; 

For bim ye labour by your flight to shun. 
And yet run toward him still." 

They contend that the conjunction unless, and the privative 
termination less, come from the adjective less ; and the con- 
junction LEST, from the superlative least. Well : And what 
is the adjective less? What is the comparative less? and 
what is the superlative least? I say. What are they? for 
that is the rational etymological question ; and not, whence do 
they come. — It is with words as with men : CaU this Squire, 
my Lord ; then he will be comparative : Call him by the new- 
fangled title of Marquis, or call him Duke ; then he will be 
superlative : And yet whosoever shall trust him, or have to do 
with him, will find to their cost that it is the same individual 
Squire Windham still. So neither is the substance or meaning 
or real import or value of any word altered by its grammatical 
class and denomination. 

The adjective Less and the comparative Less ^ are the impe- 
rative of Lefan; and the superlative Least is the past par- 
ticiple. 

The idle objections of these Critics have brought me to 
mention this etymology out of its due course : and I do not 
intend to pursue its consequences in this place. But the 
reader will see at once the force of this adjective as used by 
our ancestors, when, instead of nineteen and eighteen, they said, 

^ Parvum — Comparative Minus. Little or Small — Comparative 
Less. 

The reader will not be surprised at the irregularity (a^ it is called) 
of the above comparisons, when he considers the real meaning and 
import of Minvs and Less. 



142 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I, 

Kn Isej' tpentij — Tpa Isej' tpentij. i. e. Twenty, Dismiss (or 
Take away) one. Twenty, Dismiss (or Take away) two. We 
also say, — " He demanded twenty : I gave him two Less.'' i. e. 
I gave him twenty, Dismiss two. The same method of resolu- 
tion takes place, when we speak of any other quantity besides 
bare numbers ; nor can any instance of the use of Less or Least 
be found in the language, where the signification of Dismissing, 
Separating, or Taking away, is not conveyed. 

VI. — "Lest for lesed, say you, as blest for blessed. — r 
This is the whole of what you tender for our deference to your 
opinion : and small as the consideration is, it is made up of bad 
coin. Lesan and blessian cannot, whatever you may think of 
the matter, be coupled together, as belonging to one and the 
same order of verbs ; the one has a single, the other a double 
consonant before the termination of the infinitive mood ; that 
forms a long, this a short syllable in the participle passive ; and 
consequently^, though the latter will bear the contraction, it 
does not follow that the former will bear it likewise. And 
thus much for the bad coin with which you attempt to put us 
off.'' P. 68. 

The change of the terminating n to t in the past participles 
(or in any other words) does not depend either upon single or 
double consonants, or upon the length or shortness of the sylla- 
bles ; but singly upon the sound of the consonant which precedes 
it. There is an anatomical reason and necessity for it, which I 
have explained in pages 130 and 402 of the first edition of this 
volume. But, without the reason, and without the explanation, 
the facts are so notorious and so constantly in repetition, that 
they had only to open their eyes, or their ears, to avoid so 
palpable an absurdity as this rule about double consonants and 
long syllables, which they have, for the first time, conjured up. 
What then ? Should I not speak common English, if I should 
say to Mr. Windham, 

" Thou hast FacH many things ; 
Face not me." 

" You have FleecH the people, and SplicH a rope for your own 
neck?'' 

Here are no double consonants ; and there are long syllables. 
But, if they will not believe their eyes and their ears, let them 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 143 

try their own organs of speech ; and they will find, that with- 
out a vowel between s and d (or an interval equal to the time 
of a vowel) they cannot follow the sound s with the audible 
sound D ; and that, if they will terminate with d, they must 
change the preceding s to a z. All this would be equally true 
of the sound, even if the spelling had always continued with a 
D, and that no writer had ever conformed his orthography to 
the pronunciation.^ But we have very numerous written au- 
thorities to dumbfound these critics.^ I shall give them but 
two ; believing they are two more than they wish to see. \ 

" None other wise negligent 
Than I you saie, haue I not bee. 
In good feith sonne wel me quemeth. 
That thou thy selfe hast thus acquite 
Toward this, in whiche no wight 
Abide maie, for in an houre 
He LEST all that he maie laboure 
The long yere." — Gower^ de Conf, Aman. fol. 68. p. 1. col. 2. 

" In the towne of Stafforde was (William of Cantorbury saitli, Ihon 
Capgraue confirminge the same) a lustye minion, a trulle for the nonce, 
a pece for a prince, with whome, by report, the kinge at times was veiy 
familiare. Betwixte this wanton damsel or primerose pearlesse and 
Becket the chancellor, wente store of presentes, and of loue tokens 
plenty, and also the loners met at times, for when he resorted thidre, at 
no place would he be hosted and lodged, but wher as she held residence. 
In the dedde tyme of the night (the storye saithe) was it her generall 
custome, to come alone to his bedchambre with a candle in her hand, to 
toy and trifle with him. Men are not so folish, but they can wel con- 
ceiue, what chastity was obserued in those prety, nice, and wanton 
metinges. But they say, he sore amended whan he was once consecrated 
archbishop of Cantorbury, and least ' well his accustomed embracinges 
after the rules of loue, and became in life relygious, that afore in loue was 
lecherous." — loJm Bale. Actes of English Votaries. Dedicated to hyng 
Edwarde the syxte. 1550. 

^ Da haljan j^aule }:|iam ^am benbum ^sejf lichoman onlyj^be. — Bed. 
S. 8. Onlyj-be instead of onlyj-eb ; the e being removed from between 
the Y and b, this word must be pronounced onlyjfce. — " D literam ratio 
poscit, aures magis audiunt s." 

^ Satis hoc potuit admonendi gratia dixisse, prseter agrestes quosdam 
et indomitos certatores, qui nisi auctoritatibus adhibitis non compri- 
muntur. 

^ He dismissed. He put away. He relinquished* 



I 



144 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

SINCE. 

Since is a very corrupt abbreviation; confounding together 
different words and different combinations of words : and is 
therefore in modern English improperly made (like but) to 
serve purposes which no one word in any other language can 
answer; because the same accidental corruptions,, arising from 
similarity of sound, have not happened in the correspondent 
words of any other language. 

Where we now employ since was formerly (according to its 
respective signification) used. 

Sometimes, 

1. Seo^^an, Sio'S^an, Se^'San, Si^"San, Si^iSen, Sithen, Si- 
thence, Sithens, Sithnes, Sithns: 

Sometimes, 

2. Syne, Sine, Sene, Sen, Syn, Sin : 

Sometimes, 

3. Seand, Seeing, Seeing that. Seeing as. Sens, Sense, 
Sence. 

Sometimes, 

4. Si^^e, Si^, Sithe, Sith, Seen that. Seen as. Sens, Sense, 
Sence. 

Accordingly since, in modern English, is used four ways. 
Two, as a Preposition ; connecting (or rather affecting) words : 
and Two, as a Conjunction ; affecting sentences/ 

When used as a Preposition, it has always the signification 
either of the past participle Seen joined to thence, (that is, seen 
and thenceforward :) — or else it has the signification of the past 
participle seen only. 

When used as a Conjunction, it has sometimes the signifi- 
cation of the present participle Seeing , or Seeing that; and 
sometimes the signification of the past participle Seen, or Seen 
that. 

* It is likewise used adverbially : as when we say — It is' a year since : 
i. e. a year seen. 

In French — une annee paasee. 

In Italian — nn anno fa : i.e.faffo. 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 145 

As a Preposition, 

1. Since (for Si^^an, Sithence, or Seen and thencefor- 
ward)) as, 

^^ Such a system of government as the present has not been 
ventured on by any King since the expulsion of James the 
Second." 

2. Since (for Syne, Sene, or Seen,) as, 

"Did George the Third reign before or since that ex- 
ample ? " 

As a Conjunction', 

3. Since (for Seanb, Seeing, Seeing as, or Seeing that,) 
as, 

" If I should labour for any other satisfaction, but that of 
my own mind, it would be an effect of phrensy in me, not of 
hope ; since it is not truth, but opinion that can travel the world 
without a passport" 

4. Since (for Si^^e, Sith, Seen as, or Seen that,) as, 

" Since Death in the end takes from all, whatsoever Fortune 
or Force takes from any one ; it were a foolish madness in the 
shipwreck of worldly things, where all sinks but the sorrow, to 
save that" ^ 

Junius says, — " Since that Time, exinde. Contractum est 
ex Angl. Sith thence, q. d. sero post : ut Sith illud originem 
traxerit ex illo SSlcI^fl, Sero, quod habet Arg. Cod.^^ 

Skinner says, — " Since, a Teut. Sint. Belg. Sind. Post, 
Postea, Postquam. Doct. Th. H. putat deflexum a nostro 
Sithence. Non absurdum etiam esset declinare a Lat. Exhinc, 
E et H abjectis, et x facillima mutatione in s transeunte." Again 
he says, — " Sith ab A.S. Si^^an, Sy^^an. Belg. Seyd, Sint. 
Post, Post ilia, Postea." 

After the explanation I have given, I suppose it unnecessary 
to point out the particular errors of the above derivations. 

Sithence and Sith, though now obsolete, continued in good 
use down even to the time of the Stuarts. 



* Fm, the^rencli past participle of Foir, to See, is used in the same 
conjunctive manner in that language. 

*' Dis nous pourquoi Dieu I'a pennis, 
Fen qu'il paroit de ses amis ? " 

L 



146 ETYMOLOfrY OF THE [PART I. 

Hooker in his writings uses Sithencey Sith, Seeing, and Since. 
The two former he always properly distinguishes ; using Sithence 
for the true import of the Anglo-Saxon Si^^an, and Sith for the 
true import of the Anglo-Saxon Si^^e. Which is the more 
extraordinary, because authors of the first credit had very long 
before Hooker's time confounded them together; and thereby 
led the way for the present indiscriminate and corrupt use of 
SINCE in all the four cases mentioned. 

Seeing Hooker uses sometimes_, perhaps, (for it will admit a 
doubt ^) improperly. And since (according to the corrupt 
custom which has now universally prevailed in the language) 
he uses indifferently either for Sithence, Seen, Seeing, or 
Sith, 

THAT. 

There is something so very singular in the use of this Con- 
junction, as it is called, that one should think it would alone, 
if attended to, have been sufficient to lead the Grammarians 
to a knowledge of most of the other conjunctions, as well as 
of itself. The use I mean is, that the conjunction that gene- 
rally makes a part of, and keeps company with, most of the 
other conjunctions. — If that. An that. Unless that. Though that. 
But that, Without that. Lest that. Since that. Save that. Except 
that, &c. is the construction of most of the sentences where any 
of those conjunctions are used. 

Is it not an obvious question then, to ask, why this Conjunc- 
tion alone should be so peculiarly distinguished from all the 
rest of the same family? And why this alone should be able to 
connect itself with, and indeed be usually necessary to, almost 
all the others ? So necessary, that even when it is com- 



^ Such is the doubtful use of it by Shakespeare in the following 
passage : 

" Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, 
It seems to rae most strange that men should fear ; 
Seeing that death, a necessary end, 
Will come when it will come." 
For it may either be resolved thus ; — It seems strange that men, 
SEEING that death will come when it will come, should fear : 

Or — Strange that men should fear ; it being seen that death will come 
when it will come. > 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 14-7 

pounded with another conjunction, and drawn into it so as to 
become one word_, (as it is with slth and since,) we are still 
forced to employ again this necessary index^ in order to precede, 
and so point out the sentence which is to be affected by the 
other Conjunction ? 

B. — De_, in the Anglo-Saxon, meaning that, I can easily 
perceive that sith (which is no other than the Anglo-Saxon 
Si'S^e) includes that. But when since is (as you here con- 
sider it) a corruption for Seeing-as and Seen-as ; how does it 
then include that ? — In short, what is as ? For I can gather 
no more from the Etymologists concerning it, than that it 'is 
derived either from &>? or from als : ^ But still this explains 
nothing : for what &>? is, or als, remains likewise a secret. 

H. — The truth is, that as is also an article; and (however 
and whenever used in English) means the same as It, or That, 
or Which. In the German, where it still evidently retains its 
original signification and use, (as so ^ also does,) it is written 
—Es. 



^ Junius says, — " As, ut, sicut, Graecis est <»?." Skinner, whom S. 
Johnson follows, says — " As, a Teut. Als, sicut ; eliso soil, propter 
euphoniam intermedio L." 

^ The German so and the English so (though in one language it is 
called an Adverb or Conjunction, and in the other an Article or IPronoun) 
are yet both of them derived from the Gothic article S^V, S5? ', and 
have in both languages retained the original meaning, viz. It, or That. 

Mr. Tyrwhitt indeed (not perceiving that Al-es and Also are dif- 
ferent compounds) in a note on the Canterbury Tales, v. 7327, says — 
" Our AS is the same with Als, Teut. and Sax. It is only a further 
corruption of Also.'' But the etymological opinions of Mr. Tyrwhitt 
(who derives For the Nones from Pro ntmc) merit not the smallest 
attention. 

Dr. Lowth, amongst some false English which he has recommended, 
and much good English which he has reprobated, says — " So-as, was 
used by the writers of the last century to express a consequence, instead 
of so-that. Swift, 1 believe, is the last of our good writers who has 
frequently used this manner of expression. It seems improper, and is 
deservedly grown obsolete." 

But Dr. Lowth, when he undertook to write his Introduction, with the 
best intention in the world, most assuredly sinned against his better 
judgment. For he begins most judiciously, thus, — " Universal Grammar 
explains the principles which are common to All languages. The 
Grammar of any particular language applies those common principles 
to that particular language." And yet, with this clear truth before his 

L 2 



148 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

It does not come from Als ; any more than Though, and 
Be-it, and If (or Gif), &c. come from Although, and Albeit, 
and Algif, &c. — For Als, in our old English, is a contraction 
of Al, and es or as : and this Al (which in comparisons used to 
be very properly employed before the first es or as, but was not 
employed before the second,) we now, in modern English, sup- 
press : As we have also done in numberless other instances ; 
where All (though not improper) is not necessary. 

Thus, 

" She glides away under the foamy seas 
As swift AS darts or feather'd arrows fly." 

That is, 

** She glides away (with) that swiftness, (with) which feather'd 
arrows fly." 

eyes, he boldly proceeds to give a particular grammar ; without being 
himself possessed of one single principle of Universal Grammar. Again : 
he says, — " The connective parts of sentences are the most important 
of all, and require the greatest care and attention : for it is by these 
chiefly that the train of thought, the course of reasoning, and the whole 
progress of the mind, in continued discourse of all kinds, is laid open ; 
and on the right use of these, the perspicuity, that is the first and 
greatest beauty of style, principally depends. Eelatives and Conjunc- 
tions are the instruments of connection in discourse : it may be of 
use to point out some of the most common inaccuracies that writers are 
apt to fail into with respect to them ; and a few examples of faults may 
perhaps be more instructive, than any mles of propriety that can be 
given." 

And again, — " I have been the more particular in noting the proper 
uses of these conjunctions, because they occur very frequently ; and, as 
it was observed before of connective words in general, are of great im- 
portance with respect to the clearness and beauty of style. I may add 
too, because mistakes in the use of them are very common." 

After which he proceeds to his examples of the proper and improper 
use of these connectives : — without having the most distant notion of 
the meaning of the words whose employment he undertakes to settle. 
The consequence was unavoidable : that (having no reasonable rule to 
go by, and no apparent signification to direct him) he was compelled to 
trust to his own fanciful taste {as in the best it is), and the uncertain 
authority of others ; and has consequently approved and condemned 
without truth or reason. " Pourquoi (says Girard) apres taut de siecles 
et tant d'ouvrages, les gens de lettres ont-ils encore des idees si informes 
et des expressions si confuses, sur ce qu'ils font profession d'etudier 
et de traiter ? Ou s'ils ne veulent pas prendre la peine d'approfondir 
la matiere, comment osent-ils en donner des lemons au public ? C'est ce 
que je ne con(;ois pas." 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 149 

When in old English it is written, 

» Sche . 

Glidis away under the fomy seis 

Als swift as gan^e or fedderit arrow fleis : " 

Douglas, booke 10. p. 323. 
then it means, 

" With ALL THAT swiftncss with which, &c.'^ 
After what I have said, you will see plainly why so many of 
the conjunctions may be used almost indiflPerently (or with a 
very little turn of expression) for each other. And without my 
entering into the particular minutiae in the use of each, you 
will easily account for the slight differences in the turn of 
expression, arising from different customary abbreviations 
of construction. 

I will only give you one instance, and leave it with you for 
your entertainment : from which you will draw a variety of 
arguments and conclusions. 

" And soft he sighed, lest men might him hear. 
And soft he sigh'd, that men might not him hear. 
And soft he sighed, else men might him hear. 
Unless he sighed soft, men might him hear. 
But that he sighed soft, men might him hear. 
Without he sighed soft, men might him hear. 
Save that he sighed soft, men might him hear. 
Except he sighed soft, men might him hear. 
OuTCEPT he sighed soft, men might him hear. 
Out-take he sighed soft, men might him hear. 
If that he sigh'd not soft, men might him hear. 
And AN he sigh'd not soft, men miglit him hear. 
Set that lie sigh'd not soft, men might him hear. 
Put case he sigh'd not soft, men might him hear. 
Be it he sigh'd not soft, men might him hear." 

B. — According to your account then. Lord Monboddo is 
extremely unfortunate in the particular care he has taken to 
make an exception from the general rule he lays down, of the 
Verbs being the Parent word of all language, and to caution 
the candid reader from imputing to him an opinion that the 
Conjunctions were intended by him to be included in his rule, 
or have any connexion whatever with Verbs} 

^ *' This so copious derivation from the verb in Greek, naturally 



150 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [pART I. 

H. — In my opinion he is not less unfortunate in his rule than 
in his exception. They are both equally unfounded : and yet 
as well founded, as almost every other position which he has 
laid down in his two first volumes. The whole of which is 
perfectly worthy of that profound politician and philosopher, 
who esteems that to be the most perfect form, and as he calls 
it — " the last stage of civil society, '^ ^ where Government leaves 
nothing to the free-will of individuals ; but interferes with the 
domestic private lives of the citizens, and the education of their 
children ! Such would in truth be the last stage of civil so- 
ciety, in the sense of the lady in the comedy, whose lover 
having offered — " to give her the last proof of love and marry 
her," — she aptly replied, ^^ The last indeed ; for there^s an end 
of loving." 

B. — But what say you to the bitter irony with which Mr. 
Harris treats the moderns in the concluding note to his doc- 
trine of Conju-nctions? Where he says, — ^^ It is somewhat 
surprising that the politest and most elegant of the Attic 
writers, and Plato above all the rest, should have their works 

leads one to suspect that it is the Parent word of the whole language : 
and indeed I believe that to be the fact : for I do not know that it can 
be certainly shown that there is any word that is undoubtedly a pri- 
mitive, which is not a verb ; I mean a verb in the stncter sense and 
common acceptation of the word. By this the candid reader will not 
understand that I mean to say that prepositions, conjunction, and such 
like words, which are rather the Pegs and Nails that fasten the several 
parts of the language together than the language itself, are derived from 
verbs or are derivatives of any kind." — Vol. 2. part 2. b. 1. ch. 15. 

Court de Gebelin is as positive in the contrary opinion, — " II a fallu 
necessairement," says he, " que tons les autres mots vinssent des noms. 
II n'est aucun mot, de quelqu'espece que ce soit, et dans quekpie langue 
que ce soit, qui ne descende d'un nom." — Hist, de la Parole, p. 180. 

•^ "But the private lives of the subjects under those Governments are 
left as much to the free will of each individual, and as little subjected 
to rule, as in the American Governments above mentioned ; and every 
man in such a State may with impunity educate his children in the worst 
manner possible ; and may abuse his own person and fortune as much as 
he pleases ; provided he does no injury to his neighbours, nor attempts 
any thing against the State. The last stage of civil society, in which the 
progression ends, is that most perfect form of polity which, to all the 
advantages of the Governments last mentioned, joins the care of the 
education of the youth, and of the private lives of the citizens ; neither 
of which is left to the will and pleasure of each individual ; but both are 
regulated by public wisdom." —Vol. I. p. 243. 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 151 

filled with Particles of all kinds and with Conjunctions in par- 
ticular ; while in the modern polite works, as well of ourselves 
as of our neighbours, scarce such a word as a Particle or Con- 
junction is to be found. Is it that where there is connection 
in the meaning, there must be words had to connect ; but that 
where the connection is little or none, such connectives are of 
little use ? That houses of cards without cement may well 
answer their end ; but not those houses where one would chuse 
to dwell ? Is this the cause ? Or have we attained an elegance 
to the antients unknown ? 

' Venhmis ad mmmam fortunce^ " &c. 

What will you say to Lord Monboddo, who holds the same 
opinion with Mr. Harris ? ^ 

H. — I say that a little more reflection and a great deal less 
reading, a little more attention to common sense,^ and less 
blind prejudice for his Greek commentators, would have made 
Mr. Harris a much better Grammarian, if not perhaps a Phi- 
losopher. — What a strange language is this to come from a 
man, who at the same time supposes these Particles and Con- 
junctions to be words without meaning ! It should seem, by 
this insolent pleasantry, that Mr. Harris reckons it the per- 
fection of composition and discourse to use a great many words 
without meaning! — If so, perhaps Master Slender's language 
would meet with this learned Gentleman^s approbation : 

" I keep but three men and a boy yet, till my mother be 
dead ; but what though yet I live a poor gentleman born." 

^ " This abundance of Conjunctions and Particles," says he, vol. 2. 
p. 179, "is, in my opinion, one of the greatest beauties of the Greek 
language, &c. Por I am so far from thinking that that disjointed 
composition and short cut of style, which is so much in fashion at pre- 
sent, and of which Tacitus among the antients is the great model, is a 
beauty, that I am of opinion it is the affectation of a deformity ; nor is 
there, in my apprehension, any thing that more disfigures a style, or 
makes it more offensive to a man of true taste and judgement in writing^^ 
&c. 

" I shall only add at present, that one of the greatest difficulties of 
composing in English appears to me to be the want of such connecting 
particles as the Greeks have," &c. 

^ The author would by no means be understood to allude to the com- 
mon SENSE of Doctors Oswald, Reid, and Beattie; which appears to 
him to be sheer nonsense. 



152 ETYMOLOGY OF THE [PART I. 

Now here is cement enough in proportion to the building. 
It is plain, however, that Shakespeare (a much better phi- 
losopher by the bye than most of those who have written 
philosophical Treatises) was of a different opinion in this 
matter from Mr. Harris. He thought the best way to make 
his Zany talk unconnectedly and nonsensically was to give 
him a quantity of these elegant vrords without meaning 
which are such favourites with Mr. Harris and Lord Mon- 
boddo. 

B. — This may be raillery perhaps, but I am sure it is 
neither reasoning nor authority. This instance does not affect 
Mr. Harris : for All cement is no more fit to make a firm 
building than no cement at all. Slender^s discourse might 
have been made equally as unconnected without any particles, 
as with so many particles together. It is the proper mixture 
of particles and other words which Mr. Harris would recom- 
mend ; and he only censures the moderns for being too sparing 
of Particles. 

H. — Reasoning ! It disdains to be employed about such 
conceited nonsense, such affected airs of superiority and pre- 
tended elegance. Especially when the whole foundation is 
false : for there are not any useful connectives in the Greek, 
which are not to be found in modern languages. But for his 
opinion concerning their employment, you shall have authority y 
if you please ; Mr. Harrises favourite authority : an Antient, 
a Greek, and one too writing professedly on Plato's opinions, and 
in defence of Plato ; and which if Mr. Harris had not forgotten, 
I am persuaded he would not have contradicted. 

Plutarch says — " II n^ a ny Beste, ny instrument, ny 
armeure, ny autre chose quelle qu^elle soit au monde, qui par 
ablation ou privation d^une siene propre partie, soit plus belle, 
plus active, ne plus doulce que paravant elle n'estoit; la ou 
Toraison bien souvent, en estans les conjonctions toutes ostees, 
a une force et efificace plus affectueuse, plus active, et plus 
esmouvante. C^est pourquoy ceulx qui escrivent des figures 
de Retorique louent et prisent grandement celle quails appel- 
lent deliee ; la oil ceulx qui sont trop religieux et qui s'as- 
subjettissent trop aux regies de la grammaire, sans ozer oster 
une seule conjonction de la commune fa^on de parler, en sont 
a bon droit blasmez et repris ; comme faisans un stile enerve. 



CH. VIII.] ENGLISH CONJUNCTIONS. 153 

sans aucuue pointe d'affection^ et qui lasse et donne peine a 
ouir/' &c.^ 

I will give you another authority, which perhaps Mr. Harris 
may value more, because I value it much less. 

" II n^ a rien encore qui donne plus de mouvement an dis- 
cours que d^en oter les liaisons. En effet, un discours que rien 
ne lie et n'embarrasse, marche et coule de soymeme, et il s^en 
faut peu qu'il n^aille quelquefois plus vite que la pensee rneme 
de Forateur." Longinus then gives three examples, from 
Xenophon, Homer, and Demosthenes ; and concludes — " En 
egalant et aplanissant toutes choses par le moyen de liaisons, 
vous verrez que d^un pathetique fort et violent vous tomberez 
dans une petite affeterie de langage qui n'aura ni pointe ni 
eguillon ; et que toute la force de votre discours s^eteindra 
aussi-tost d^elle-mesme. Et comme il est certain, que si on 
lioit le corps d^un horn me qui court, on lui feroit perdre toute 
sa force ; de meme si vous allez embarrasser une passion de 
ces liaisons et de ces particules inutiles, elle les souffre avec 
peine ; vous lui otez la liberte de sa course, et cette impetuo- 
site qui la faisoit marcher avec la mesme violence qu'un trait 
lance par une machine.^^ ^ 

Take one more authority, better than either of the foregoing 
on this subject. 

" Partes orationis similes nexu indigent, ut inter se uni- 
antur ; et iste vocatur Conjunctio, quse definitur vocula inde- 
clinabilis quae ;partes orationis colligit. Alii cam subintelligi 
malint, alii expresse et moleste repetunt : illud, qui attentiores 
sunt rebus ; hoc, qui rigorosius loquuntur. Omittere fere 
omnes conjunctiones Hispanorum aut vitium aut character est. 
Plurimae desiderantur in Lucano, plurimse in Seneca, multse in 
aliis authoribus. Multas omitto ; et, si meum genium sequerer, 
fere omnes. Qui rem intelligit et argumentura penetrat, per- 
cipit sibi ipsis cohserere sententias, nee egere particulis ut con- 
nectantur : quod, si interserantur voculse connexivse, scopse 
dissolutse illse sunt; nee additis et multiplicatis conjunctionibus 
cohaerere poterunt. Hinc patet quid debuisset responderi Cali- 
gulse, Senecse calamum vilipendenti. Suetonius : Lenius comp- 



^ Platonic Questions, Amyot's Translation. 
' Boilcau's Translation. 



154 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

tiusque scribendi genus adeo contempsit, ut Senecatrij turn 
7naxime placentem, commissiones meras componere, et Arenam 
SINE CALCEj diceret" — " Calignlae hoc judicium est^ inquit 
Lipsius in judicio de Seneca ; nempe illius qui cogitavit etiam 
de Homeri carminibus abolendis_, itemque Virgilii et Titi Livii 
scriptis ex omnibus bibliothecis amovendis. Respondeo igitur 
meum Senecam non vulyo nee plebi scripsisse, nee omni viro 
docto, sed illi qui attente eum legeret. Et addo, ubi lector 
mente Senecam sequitur, sensmn adsequi : nee inter sententias, 
suo se prementes et consolidantes pondere, conjunctionem majorem 
requiri." — Caramuel_, cxlii. 

And I hope these authorities (for I will offer no argument 
to a writer of his cast) will satisfy the " true taste and judge- 
ment in writing ^' of Lord Monboddo -, who with equal affec- 
tation and vanity has followed Mr. Harris in this particular • 
and who_, though incapable of writing a sentence of common 
English, [defuerunt enim illi et usus pro duce et ratio pro sua- 
sore,) sincerely deplores the decrease of learning in England ; ^ 
whilst he really imagines that there is something captivating 
in his own style, and has gratefully informed us to whose 
assistance we owe the obligation. 



CHAPTER IX. 

or PREPOSITIONS. 



B. — Well, Sir, what you have hitherto said of the Con- 
junctions will deserve to be well considered. But we have not 
yet entirely done with them : for, you know, the Prepositions 
were originally, and for a long time, classed with the Con- 
junctions : and when first separated from them, were only 
distinguished by the name of Prepositiiie Conjunctions.^ 

^ See Mr. BosioelVs Tour to the Hebrides, p. 473. 

^ The philosophers of Hungary, Turkey and Georgia at least were 
in no danger of falling into this absurdity ; for Dr. Jault, in his preface 
to (what is very improperly, though commonly, called) Menage's Dic- 
tionary, tells us — "Par le frequent commerce que j'ai eu avec eux [les 
Hongrois'] pendant plusieurs annees, ayant tache de penetrer a fonds ce 
que ce pouvoit etre que cet idiome si different de tons les autres d'Eu- 
ropc, je les ai convaincus qu'ils ctoient Scythes d'originc, ou du moins 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 155 

H, — Very true^ Sir. And these Prepositive Conjunctions, 
once separated from the others_, soon gave birth to another 
subdivision ; ^ and Grammarians were not ashamed to have a 
class of Postpositive Prepositives. — ^^Dantur etiam Postposi- 
tiones (says Caramuel) ; quse Prapositiones postpositivce solent 
dici, nulla vocabulorum repugnantia : vocantur enim Prce- 
positiones, quia sensu saltem prseponuntur ; et Postpositivce y 
quia vocaliter postponi debent." 

B. — But as Mr. Harris still ranks them with Connectives, 
this, I think, will be the proper place for their investigation. 
And as the title of Prepositive or Preposition " only expresses 
their place and not their character ; their Definition, he says, 
will distinguish them from the former Connectives.'^ He there- 
fore proceeds to give a compleat definition of them, viz. 

— ^^ A Preposition is a part of speech, devoid itself of signifi- 
cation ; but so formed as to unite two words that are significant, 
and that refuse to coalesce or unite of themselves J' — Now I am 
curious to know, whether you will agree with Mr. Harris in his 
definition of this part of Speech ; or whether you are determined 
to differ from him on every point. 

H. — Till he agrees with himself, I think you should not dis- 
approve of my differing from him ; because for this at least I 
have his own respectable authority. Having defined a word to 
be a " Sound significant ; " he now defines a Preposition to be a 
word " devoid of signification. '' And a few pages after, he says, 
t( Prepositions commonly transfuse something of their own mean- 
ing into the word with which they are compounded" 

Now, if I agree with him that words are sounds significant ; 
how can I agree that there are sorts of words devoid of signi- 
fication ? And if I could suppose that Prepositions are devoid 

que leur laiigiie etoit une des branches de la Scythique ; puisqu'a I'egard 
de rinflexioii elle avoit rapport a celle des Turcs, qui constamment pas- 
soient pour Scythes, etant originaire du Turquestau, et de la Transoxiane ; 
et qu'outre cela les prepositions de ces deux langues, aussi bien que de 
]a Georgienne, se mettoient toujours apres leur reyinie^ centre I'ordre de 
hi nature et la signification de leur nom." 

Look at the English, i. e. The language we are talking of : The lan- 
guage we deal in : The object we look to : The persons we work for : 
The explanation we depend upon ; &c. 

^ Buonmattei has still a further subdivision ; and has made a separate 
part of speech of the Sef/nacasi. 



156 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

of sif/nification ; how could I afterwards allow tbat they trans- 
fuse something of their own meaning ? 

B. — This is the same objection repeated, which you made 
before to his definition of the first sort of Connectives. But is 
it not otherwise a compleat definition ? 

H. — Mr. Harris no doubt intended it as such : for, in a 
note on this passage, he endeavours to justify his doctrine by 
a citation from Apollonius ; ^ which he calls ^^ rather a de- 
scriptive sketch than a compleat definition.^^ But what he 
gives us in the place of it, as compleat, is neither definition 
nor even description. It contains a Negation and an Accident ; 
and nothing more. It tells us what the Preposition is not; 
and the purpose for which he supposes it to be employed. It 
might serve as well for a definition of the East India Company, 
as of a Preposition : for of that we may truly say — " It is not 
itself any part of the Government, but so formed as to unite 
those who would not have coalesced of themselves.^^ ^ — Poor 
Scaliger (who well knew what a definition should be) from 
his own melancholy experience exclaimed — ^^ Nihil infelicius 
grammatico definitore ! " Mr. Harrises logical ignorance most 
happily deprived him of a sense of his misfortunes. And so 
little, good man, did he dream of the danger of his situation. 



^ " Je n'entends pas trop bien le Grec, dit le Geant. 

" Ni moi non plus, dit la Mite philosophique. 

" Pourquoi done, reprit le Sirien, citez-vous im certain Aristote en 
Grec ? 

" C'est, repliqua le Savant, qu'il faut bien citer ce qu'on ne cora- 
prend point du tout, dans la langue qn'on entend le moins." — Voltaire, 
Micromegas. 

^ Let the reader who has any sense of justice, or who feels any 
anxiety for the welfare of his country, look back and re-consider the 
corrupt use which one Coalition would have made of this company in the 
year 1783, and the corrupt use which another Coalition has made of it 
since. Let him then recall to his mind the parallel histoiy of the Com- 
pany of St. George, at the close of the flourishing days of the Republic 
of Genoa ; and in spite of all outward appearances, he will easily be able 
to foretell the speedy fate of this pilfered and annihilated body. With- 
out any external shock, the sure cause of its rapid destruction is in its 
present despotic and corrupt constitution : to the formation of which 
(and to no supposed delinquency nor personal enmity) that much injured 
man, Mr. Hastings, was made the victim by all the corrupt parties in the 
kingdom. 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 157 

that whilst all others were acknowledging their successless 
though indefatigable labours^ and lamenting their insuperable 
difficulties^ he prefaces his doctrine of Connectives with this 
singularly confident introduction ; - — " What remains of our 
work is a matter of less difficulty ; it being the same here as 
in some historical picture : when the principal figures are once 
formed, it is an easy labour to design the rest/^ ^ 

B. — However contradictory and irregular all this may appear 
to you, Mr. Harris has advanced nothing more than what the 
most approved Greek and Latin Grammarians have delivered 
down to him, and what modern Grammarians and Philosophers 
have adopted.^ 

^ Such is the language, and such are the definitions of him who, in 
this vei-y chapter of the Prepositions, has modestly given us the fol- 
lowing note. — " And here I cannot but observe, that he who pretends 
to discuss the sentiments of any one of these philosophers, or even to 
cite and translate him (except in trite and obvious sentences) without 
accurately knowing the Greek tongue in general ; the nice differences 
of many words apparently synonymous ; the peculiar style of the 
author whom he presumes to handle ; tlie new coined words, and new 
significations given to old words used by such author and his sect ; the 
whole philosophy of such sect, together with the connection and de- 
pendencies of its several parts, whether logical, ethical or physical; — 
He, / say, that, without this previous preparation, attempts what I 
have said, will shoot in the dark ; will be liable to perpetual blunders ; 
will explain and praise and censui-e merely by chance : and though he 
may possibly to fools appear as a wise man, will certainly among the 
wise ever pass for a fool. Such a man's intellect comprehends antient 
philosophy, as his eye comprehends a distant prospect. He may see, 
perhaps, enough to know mountains from plains, and seas fi'om woods ; 
but for an accurate discernment of particulars and their character, this, 
without further helps, it is impossible to attain." 

^ " Praepositio sen adnomen, per se nan significat, nisi addatur nomi- 
nibus." — Campanella. 

" Multas et varias hujus partis orationis definitiones invenio. Et prse 
cseteris arridet haec, — Pi-sepositio est vocula : modum quendam nomiuis 
adsignlficans. ' ' — Caramuel. 

" Ut omittam Particulas minores, cujusmodi sunt Praepositiones, Con- 
junctiones, Intei;jectiones, quae nnllam habent cum nondnibus affinitatem'^ 
— /. C. Scaliger, de L. L. cap. 192. 

Even Hoogeveen, who clearly saw — " Particulas in sua IvfonfAa fidsse 
vel verba vel nomina, vel ex nominibus formata adverbia ;" yet gives the 
following account and Definition of them : 

" Priraam, ut reliquarum, ita Graecae quoque linguae originem fuisse sim- 
plicissimam, ipsa natura ac ratio docent; primosque ovonaderas nomina, 
quibus res. et verba, quibus actiones exprimerent, i/on vero Tarticnlas 



158 OF PREPOSITIONS. [pART I. 

H. — Yes. Yes. I know the errors are antient enough_, 
to have been long ago worn out and discarded. But I do not 
think that any excuse for repeating them. For a much less 
degree of understanding is necessary to detect the erroneous 
principles of others^ than to guard against those which may 
be started for the first time by our own imagination. In 
these matters it shows less weakness of judgment^ because it 
is more easy to deceive ourselves than to be deceived by 
others. 

B. — You will do well, Sir, to be particularly mindful of 
what you said last; and to place your strongest guard there, 
where it may be most wanted : for you seem sufficiently de- 
termined not to be deceived by others. And with this caution, 
I shall be glad to hear your account of the Preposition. Per- 
haps I shall save time, at least I shall sooner satisfy myself, by 
asking you a few questions. — Pray how many Prepositions are 
there ? 

H. — Taking the Philosophy of language as it now stands, 
your question is a very proper one. And yet you know, that 
authors have never hitherto been agreed concerning their num- 
ber. The antient Greek Grammarians admitted only eighteen 

instituisse, probabile est. Certe, cum ex nominibus et verbis integra 
constet oratio, quorum haec actiones et affectiones, ilia personas agentes 
et patientes indicant, jure quceritur, an prinKeva lingua hahuerit par- 
ticular. Non utique necessariam, rem exprimendi, vim habere videutur, 
sed adscititiam quaiidam, et sententias per nomina et verba expressas 
variandi, stahilietidi, injirmandi, negandi, copulandi, disjungendi, immi- 
nuendi, affinnandi, limitandi, multisque modis afficiendi : Ipsa ve7'o, 
quatenus particula, per se solas spectata, niJiil significant. — 

" Natura, inquam, ipsa docet, Particidis antiquiora esse nomina et 
verba, quia, observato rerum ordine, necesse est, res et actiones prius 
fuisse natas et expressas, quam Particulas, quae lias vel conjungunt, vel 
disjungunt : priora sunt jungenda jungentibus, lirmanda firraantibus, 
limitanda limitantibus, et sic deinceps. Neque mea Usee, neque nova 
est de particularum minus antiqua origine opinio : suffragantem habeo 
Plutarclium ad illam qusestionem, quae inter Platonicas postrema est — 
' Cur Plato dixerit orationem ex nominibus et verbis misceri.' Ubi ait 
— ' Probabile esse, homines ab initio orationem distinguentium Particu- 
larum eguisse.' — ^ 

" Dicamus ergo, Particulam esse voculam, ex nomine vel verbo natam^ 
quae sententioc addita, aliquam ipsi passionem affert, et orationi admini' 
culo est, et officiosa viinistra. Ministram voco, quia, orationi non inserta, 
sed per se posita et solitaria, nihil signijirat." 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 159 

(six monosyllables and twelve dissyllables) . The antient Latin 
Grammarians above fifty.^ Though the moderns_, Sanctius, 
ScioppiuSj Perizonius, Vossius, and others, have endeavoured to 
lessen the number without fixing it.^ 

Our countryman Wilkins thinks that thirty-six are suf- 
ficient.^ 

Girard says, that the French language has done the business 
effectually with thirty-two : and that he could not, with the ut- 
most attention, discover any more.^ 

But the authors of the Encyclopedic [Preposition], though 
they also, as well as Girard, admit only simple prepositions, have 
found in the same language, forty-eight. 

And Buffier gives a list of seventy-five; and declares that 
there is a great number besides, which he has not mentioned. 

The greater part of authors have not ventured even to talk of 
any particular number : and of those who have, (except in the 
Greek) no two authors have agreed in the same language. Nor 
has any one author attributed the same number to any two dif- 
ferent languages. 

Now this discordance has by no means proceeded from any 
carelessness or want of diligence in Grammatists or Lexico- 
graphers : but the truth is, that the fault lies with the Phi- 
losophers : for though they have pretended to teach others, 

^ Scotus determines them to be forty-nine. 

^ Sanctius says, — " Ex numero Prsepositionum, quas Grammatici 
pertinaciter assevimt, aliquas sustulimiis." 

^ " There are thirty-six Prepositions which may, with much less 
equivocalness than is found in instituted languages, si/ffice to express 
those various respects which are to be signified by this kind of Particle." 
— Part 3. chap. 3. 

* " Quoique les rapports determinatifs qu'on pent mettre entre les 
choses soient varies et nombreux ; le langage Prancois a trouve I'art 
d'en faire enoncer la multitude et la diversite des nuances, par un petit 
nombre de mots : car I'examen du detail fait avec toute V attention dont 
je suis capable, ne m'en oftVe que trente deux de cette espece. II m'a 
paru que les dictionnaires coiifondent quelquefois des Adverbes et meme 
des Conjonctions avec des Prepositions. — Je ne me suis jamais permis 
de ne rien avancer sans avoir fait un examen profond et rujoureux ; mc 
servant toujours de I'analyse et des regies de la plus exacte Logique 
pour resoudre mes doutes, et tacher de prendre le parti le plus vrai. Je 
ne dmimnlerai pourtant pas, que mes scrupules o?tt ete frequents : mais 
ma discussion a ete attentive, et mon travail opiniatre." — Frais 
Principes, Disc. 11. 



160 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

they have none of them known themselves what the nature of 
a Preposition is. And how is it possible that Grammarians 
should agree, what words ought or ought not to be referred to a 
class which was not itself ascertained ? Yet had any of the 
definitions or accounts yet given of the Preposition and of 
language been just, two consequences would immediately 
have followed : viz. That all men would have certainly known 
the precise number of Prepositions ; and (unless Things, or the 
operations of the human mind, were different in different ages 
and climates) their number in all languages must have been 
always the same. 

B. — You mean then now at last, I suppose, to fix the number 
of real Prepositions in our own, and therefore in all other 
languages. 

H. — Very far from it. I mean on the contrary to account 
for their variety. And I will venture to lay it down as a rule, 
that, of different languages, the least corrupt will have the 
fewest Prepositions : and, in the same language, the best ety- 
mologists will acknowledge the fewest. And (if you are not 
already aware of it) I hope the reason of the rule will appear in 
the sequel. 

There is not, for instance, (as far as I am aware) a prepo- 
sition in any language answering directly to the French prepo- 
sition CHEZ.^ Yet does it by no means follow, that the modern 
French do therefore employ any operation of the mind, or 
put their minds into any posture different from their ances- 
tors or from other nations ; but only that there happens not to 
be in any other language a similar corruption of some word 

^ In the same manner Temoin and Moyennant are prepositions pecu- 
liar also to tlie French, but which require no explanation : because the 
Substantive Temoin, and the Participle Moyennant, are not confined to 
their prepositive employment alone, (or, as in the Latin it is termed, 
put absolutely,) but are used upon all other common occasions where 
those denominations are wanted ; and their signification is therefore 
evident. Moiening was antiently used in English. — "At whose insti- 
gacion and stiring I (Robert Copland)' have me applied, Moiening the 
helpe of God, to reduce and translate it." (See Ames's History of 
Printing ; or see Percy's Reliques, vol. 2. p. 273.) Had the use of this 
word continued in our language, it would certainly have been ranked 
amongst the prepositions; and we should consequently have been con- 
sidered as exerting one operation of the r/' -^ more than we do 'at 
present. 



CH. IX.] OP PREPOSITIONS. 161 

corresponding precisely with chez. Which is merely a cor- 
ruption of the Italian substantive casa : ^ in the same manner 
as chose is from cosa ; or as chevalj chemise^ chemirij chetify che- 



^ Though the bulk of the French language is manifestly a corrupt 
derivation from the Italian, yet, as Scaliger observed of the Eomans — 
" Aliqui autem, inter quos Varro, etiam maligne eruerunt omnia e Latinis 
Grsecisque, suas origines invidere : " So have the French, in all former 
times, shewn a narrow jealousy and envy towards Italy, its authors, and 
language : to which however they originally owe every thing valuable 
which they possess. From this spirit Hemi Estiene, Be la precellence dtc 
Imigage Frangois, (a book of ill-founded vanity, blind prejudice and 
partiality,) asserts that the Italians have taken — " la bande des mots qu'on 
appelle indeclinahles ; comme sont Adverhes, Conjonctions, et aiitres 
particules,^^ from the French : and amongst others he mentions se, se ^lon^ 
che^ ma^ and seytza. But I shall hereafter have occasion to shew clearly 
the injustice of Henry Estiene to the Italian language, when I come to 
compare the respective advantages and disadvantages of the modern lan- 
guages of Europe, and whence they flow. In the mean time it may not 
perhaps be improper to offer a general rule, by which (when applicable) 
all etymological disputants ought to be determined, whether such deter- 
mination be favourable or adverse to their national vanity and prejudice : 
viz. That where different languages use the same or a similar particle , 
that language ought to be considered as its legitimate parent, in which 
the true meaning of the word can be found, and where its use is as com- 
mon and familiar as that of any other verbs and substantives. 

A more modern author (and therefore less excusable), Bergier, Ele- 
mens primitifs des Langues, having first absurdly imagined what is con- 
tradicted by all experience, viz. — " A mesure que les langues se sont 
eloignees de leur source primitive, les mots ont regu de nouveaux ac- 
croissements : plus elles ont ete cultivees plus elles se sont allongees. 
On ne leur a donne de I'agrement, de la cadence, de I'harmonie qu'aux 
depens de leur brievete : " — proceeds to this consequence, — " Les Eo- 
mains ne nous ont pas communique les terraes simples, les liaisons du 
discours : la plupart de ces ternies sont plus courts en Francois qu'en 
Latin, et les Gaulois s'en servoient avant que de connoitre 1' Italic ou 
ses habitants." — And then, to shew more strongly the spirit which 
animates him (a spirit unworthy of letters and hostile to the investiga- 
tion of truth), adds — " Sommes nous suffisamment instmits, lorsque nous 
avons appris de nos Etymologistes, que tel mot Francois est emprunte 
du Latin, tel autre du Grec, celui-ci de I'Espagnol, celui-la du Teuton ou 
de TAllemand ? Mais les Latins ou les Allemands de qui I'ont-ils re9u ? 
Ne serable-t-il pas que nos ayeux ne subsistoient que des emprunts, tan- 
disque les autres peuples estoient riches de leur propre fonds? Je ne 
puis souffrir qu'on nous envois mendier ailleurs, tandisque nous I'avons 
chez nous." 

• Perhaps there was s'^'^'^ thing of this jealousy in Menage, when (not 
being able to agree with Sylvius, that oiiEZ should be written Stis or 



162 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

vreuil, cher, chenu, chien, toucher, &c. are corrupted from 
cavallo, camiscia, caminOj cattivo, cavriuolo, caro, canuto, cane, 
toccare, &c. 

If the ingenious Abbe Girard bad known what chez really 
was, he would not have said (Vrais Frincipes, Disc. 2.) ^'^Chez 
a pour son partage particulier une idee d'habitation, soit comme 
patrie_, soit comme simple demeure domestique/^ But he would 
have said chez is merely a corruption of casa, and has all the 
same meaning in French which casa has in Italian : ^ and that is 
something more than patrie or demeure domestique ; viz. — 
Race, Family, Nation, Sect, &c. [" Ancien patron de la case/' 
says M. de Bussy Babutin in his Memoirs_, tom. 2. p. 175.] 
Neither again would he have said — ^^11 s^agit ici de la per- 
mission que I'usage a accordee a quelques prepositions d'en 
regir d^autres en certaines occasions : c'est a dire_, de les souf- 
frir dans les complemens dont elles indiquent le rapport ; comme 
— Je viens de chez vous.'' He would have seen through this 



Sur) he asserts that — " chez vient de apud, d'oii les Italiens ont fait 
apo, et les Espagnols cabe en preposant comme nous un c." 

Mr. de Brosses however, superior to all Jittle prejudices, says — " On 
voit bien que chez est une traduction de I'ltalien casa, et que quand on 
dit CHEZ vous, c'est comme si Ton disoit casa voi (maison de vous). Et 
encore ce dernier mot est plutot dans notre langue une adverhe qu'une 
particule ; ainsi que beaucoup d'autres dont Torigine devient plus facile a 
reconnoitre. Mais quand ce sont de pui-es Fai'ticides, il est mal aise de 
retrouver la premiere cause de leur formation ; qui sans doute a souvent 
ete arbitraire & precipitee : comme je I'ai remarque en parlant de petites 
expressions conjonctives, qui ne servent qu'a former la liaison du discours." 
— Formation Meclianique des Langues, tom. 2. chap. 14. art. 254. 

The French Law Term Clieze, which has caused to that people so much 
litigation, and to their lawyers so much controversy, (and which some of 
their authors would have written CJiesue, because they supposed the land 
to have been formerly measured with a Chain; and others would have 
written cJioise parce-que I'aine choisit,) is derived in like manner from 
CASA, and means no more than what we in English call the Home-stead or 
Home-stall, whose extent is, of course, variable ; but ought in reason to 
go with the house. 

If therefore the French Etymologists thus stumbled at cheze, it is no 
wonder they knew not what to make of chez, whose corruption had 
proceeded one step further. 

^ S. Johnson (who was conversant with no languages but English, 
Latin, and Greek) under the word at, says hardily, but not truly, that — 
*• chez means sometimes application to, or dependence on." 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 163 

grammatical mystery * of one preposition^s governing another ; 
and would have said^ that de may be prefixed to the Substantive 
CHEZ (id est, casa) in the same manner as to any other substan- 
tive. For, — "Je viens De chez vous" is no other than — Je viens 
de CASA a vous ; or (omitting the Segnacaso ^) de casa vous ; 
or, de CA vous,^ 

But thus it is that when Grammar comes at length (for its 
application is always late) to be applied to a language; some 
long preceding corruption causes a difficulty : ignorance of the 
corruption gives rise to some ingenious system to account for 
these words, which are considered as original and not corrupted. 
Succeeding ingenuity and heaps of misplaced learning increase 
the difficulty, and make the error more obstinate, if not 
incurable. 

B. — Do you acknowledge the preposition to be an inde- 
clinable word ? 

jy.— No. 

B, — Do you think it has a meaning of its own ? 
A. — Yes, most certainly. And indeed, if prepositions had no 
proper meaning of their own, why several unmeaning pre- 

^ [See another instance of this " mystery of one preposition's govern- 
ing another " in the case of op bune, in the note on Down and Adown, 
in the Editor's Additional Notes.] 

^ That this omission of the Segnacaso is not a strained supposition of 
my own, we have the authority of Henri Estiene {Be la p'ecell. dii lang. 
Fran. p. 178.) 

" Qui la maison son voisin ardoir voit, 
De la sienne douter se doit. 
"Et faut noter — la maison son voisin — estre diet a la fa9on ancienne ; 
au lieu de dire — la ?naison de son voisin.'* 

So the Diction, della Crusca — " casa. Nome dopo di oui vien las- 
ciato talvolta dagli autori per proprieta di linguagio, VArticolo e il seg- 
nacaso. 

^^ Sen* andarono a casa i prestatori.^* — BoccAC. 
" Pourquoy si souvent de Dissyllables font ils (les Italiens) des mono- 
de CASA, CA, &c." — H. Estiene. Be la precell. 
Diction, della Crusca, — " Ca, accorciato da casa." 
So Menage. — " Fermato I'uso di questo troncamento di cA per casa, 
familiare a nostri antichi. — Sarae simile alV uomo savio, il quale edifica 
la CA sfua sopra la pietra. Vangel di San Matteo volgare. — Finegia, 
ne^ quali paesi si dice ca in vece di casa. Silvano Rozzi." Many other 
instances are also given from Dante, Boccacio, Giovan Villani, Franco 
Sachetti, &c. 

M 2 



164 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

positions; when one alone must have answered the purpose 
equally ? The cypher, which has no value of itself, and only 
serves (if I may use the language of Grammarians) to connote 
and consignify, and to change the value of the figures, is not 
several and various, but uniformly one and the same. 

B. — I guessed as much whilst you were talking of Conjunc- 
tions : and supposed that you intended to account for them both 
in the same manner.^ 



^ Speaking of Prepositions, Cour de GebeHn says, Gramm. Univers. 
p. 238, " Mais comment des mots pareils qui semblent ne rien peindre, ne 
rien dire, dont I'origine est inconnue, et qui ne tiennent en apparence a 
aucune famille, peuvent ils araener rharmonie et la clarte dans les 
tableaux de la parole et devenir si necessaires, que sans eux le langage 
n'offriroit que des peintures imparfaites ? Comment ces mots peuvent 
ils produire de si grands efFets et repandre dans le discours tant de 
clialeur, tant de finesse? " 

^ In a Letter to Mr. Dunning, published in the year 1778, I asserted 
in a note (page 23) that — " There is not, nor is it possible there should 
be, a word in any language, which has not a corapleat meaning and signi- 
fi.cation even when taken by itself. Adjectives, Prepositions, Advei'bs, 
&c., have all compleat, separate meanings, not difficult to be discovered." 
[See the Letter, reprinted at the end of this Edition.] 

Having in that letter explained the unmeaning conjunctions, with which 
alone I had at that time any personal concern ; and not foreseeing that the 
equally unmeaning Prepositions were afterwards by a solemn decision {but 
without explanation) to be determined more certain than certainty ; I was 
contented by that note to set other persons who might be more capable 
and more at leisure than myself, upon an enquiry into the subject : being 
very indifferent from whose hand the explanation might come to the 
public. I must acknowledge myself a little disappointed, that in eight 
years' time, no person whatever has pursued the enquiry ; although the 
success I had had with the Conjunctions might reasonably have encou- 
raged, as it much facilitated, the search. But though aU men (as far as I 
can learn) have admitted my particular proofs concerning the Conjunc- 
tions, none have been inclined (as I wished they might be) to push the 
principle of my reasoning further, and apply it to the other Particles. 
The ingenious author of Essays Historical and Moral, published in 1785, 
says, (page 125) — ''Possibly Prepositions were, at first, short interjec- 
tional words, such as our carters and shepherds make use of to their 
cattle, to denote the relations of place. Or perhaps a more skilful 
linguist and antiquarian may be able to trace them from- other words, as 
the Conjunctions have been traced by the author above mentioned." — It 
is therefore manifest, that the principle of my reasoning was either not 
sufficiently opened by me, or has not taken sufficient hold of the minds of 
others; and that it is necessary still further to apply it to the other 
Paitiiies. 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOStTIONS. 165 

' ^.— Ton were" not mistaken, Sir. For though Yossiiis and 
others have concurred with the censure which Priscian passes 
on the Stoics for classing Prepositions and Conjunctions, &c. 
together under one head; yet in truth they are both to be 
accounted for in the same way. 

The Prepositions as well as the Conjunctions are to be found 
amongst the other Parts of Speech. The same sort of corrup- 
tion, from the same cause, has disguised both : and ignorance 
of their true origin has betrayed Grammarians and Philosophers 
into the mysterious and contradictory language which they 
have held concerning them. And it is really entertaining, 
to observe the various shifts used by those who were too sharp- 
witted and too ingenuous to repeat the unsatisfactory accounts 
of these Prepositions handed down by others, and yet not 
ingenuous enough to acknowledge their own total ignorance on 
the subject. 

The Grammarian says, it is none of his business; but that 
it belongs to the Philosopher : and for that reason only he 
omits giving an account of them. Whilst the Philosopher 
avails himself of his dignity ; and, when he meets with a 
stubborn difficulty which he cannot unravel, [and only then,) 
disdains to be employed about Words : although they are the 
necessary channel through which his most precious liquors 
must flow. 

'^Grammatico satis est," -says Sanctius, "si tres has partes 
posteriores (scil. Adverbia, PrcBpositiones, Conjunctiones,) vocet 
Particulas indeclinabiles ; et functus erit officio perfecti Gram- 
matici. — Significationes enumerare, magis Philosophi est quam 
Grammatici : quia Grammatici munus non est, teste Varrone, 
vocum significationes indagare, sed earum usum. Propter ea 
nos in arte haec prsetermisimus." 

Mr. Locke complains of the neglect of others in this parti- 
cular; denies it to be his business "to examine them in their 
full latitude:" and declares that^he "intends not here, a full 
explication of them." Like Scaliger — Non in animo est. — And 
this serves him as an apology for not examining them at all in 
any latitude ; and for giving no explication of them whatever in 
any place. 

The author of the Port Royal philosophical Grammar saves 
himself by an Almost. " Ce sont presque les memcs rapports 



166 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I, 

dans toutes les langues^ qui sont mafquds par les Propositions/^ 
And therefore lie will content himself to mention some of the 
principal French Prepositions^ without obliging himself to fix 
their exact number. And as Sanctius had his reason for turn- 
ing the business over to a philosophical grammar, whilst he was 
treating of a particular language : so this author, who was 
w^riting a general grammar, had his reason for leaving it to 
those who wrote particular grammars. — " C'est pourquoi je me 
contenterai de rapporter ici les principaux de ceux qui sont 
marques par les prepositions de la langue Frangoise; sans 
m'obliger a en faire un denombrement exact, comme il seroit 
necessaire pour une Grammaire particulihreJ" 

M. L^Abbe de Condillac^s method is most conveniently cava- 
lier, and perfectly adapted to a writer of his description.—'^ Je 
me bornerai a vous en donner quelques exemples : car vousjugez 
bien, Monseigneur, que je ne me propose pas d^analyser les 
acceptions de toutes les prepositions/' And again, concludes — 
'^ En voila assez, Monseigneur ! '^ ^ 

Even the learned President de Brosses, in his excellent 
treatise De la Formation mechanique des Langues, is compelled 
to evade the inquiry. " L'accroissement en tete des mots y 
amene une quantite fort variee d'idees accessoires. C'est un 
effet commun des Prepositions ; qui pourroit fournir la matiere 
d'un chapitre tres-philosophique sur leurs causes, leurs racines, 
leur force, leur efiFet, leurs significations, leurs varietes. Je 
ne ferai que toucher cette matiere en fort peu de mots dans un 
exemple que je donnerai, et seukment pour mettre sur les votes J' 
—Tom. 2. chap. 11. art. 198. 

The laborious and judicious R. Johnson includes in one page 
of his National Grammar all that he has to ofier on the Adverb, 
Conjunction, and Preposition : and concludes with saying — - 
'^ And here, if I would shew the reader the defectiveness of this 
Grammar (Lilly's) in the account it gives of the use of the 
Prepositions, it would make a little volume. 



* In the same manner he skips over all sorts of difficulty with the 
Conjunctions. 

" Mais, Monseigneur, il est imilile de faire I'enumeration de toutes les 
conjonctions." — " Je ne crois pas, Monseigneur, qu'il y ait rim de plus 
a remarquer sur les conjonctions." — Partic 3. chap. 23. 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 167 

" Sed nos immensum spatio confecimus sequor, 
Et jam tempus Equum fumantia solvere colla." * 

Our countryman Wilkins_, who is fairer and more intelligent 
than any of them^ does not deny that it falls properly within his 
province; but saves himself by selecting such as he conceives 
sufficient. Speaking of Particles, he says, (Part 3. chap. 2.) — 
" The words of this kind are exceeding numerous and equivocal 
in all languages, and add much to the difficulty of learning 
them. It being a very hard matter to establish the just number 
of such as in all kinds are necessary/ and to fix to them their 
proper significations : which yet ought to be done in a philo- 
sophical grammar. I shall in this Essay select out of instituted 
languages, such of the several sorts as I conceive sufficient for 
this purpose.'^ 

The learned Alexander Gil employs the denomination Con^ 
significativa ; which is more comprehensive than Particle, but 
not more explanatory. 

" De consignificativis. — ^^ Vox consignificativa Articulos 
comprehendit, Adverbia item, Conjunctiones, Prcepositiones, 
Interjectiones. Et quia in his invariabilibus nihil difficultatis 
est, prseter ipsam vocum cognitionem, classes enim esedem sunt, 
ut usus idem qui Latinse, et aliis Unguis, ad Lexicographos 
harum rerum studiosum lectorem ablegabo.^^ — Logonomia An- 
glica, p. 67, 68. 

Doctor Wallis, after GiFs example, says — ^^ Adverbia eandem 
sortiuntur naturam apud nos quam apud Latinos, aliasque 
gentes. Conjunctiones item eundem habent usum quem apud 
Latinos, aliosque. Prsepositiones etiam eandem sortiuntur 
naturam., quam aliis Unguis. Si quis tamen harum aliquot 
voces potius adverbia esse dicat ; aut etiam ex adverbiis aliquot 

^ And in his Nodes NottingJiamicce lie says — " Prsepositionum Con- 
structio — 

*'We are come now to the most curious part of all grammar, and 
which, if it were truly stated, would at once instmct, and entertain the 
reader with a surprizing delight." 

And there he leaves it. 

^ No wonder that Wilkins found it so hard to fix the number which 
was necessary, since their number in every language depends merely 
upon how many of the most common words shall become obsolete or 
corrupted. This being mere matter of particular fiict and of accident, can 
have no place in general or philosophical gi'aramar. 



168 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I, 

ad conjunctionum classem referre malit : non tanti est ut hac 
de re quis contendatj cum_, et apiid Latinos,, eadem non raro 
vox nunc pro adverbio, nunc pro conjunctione censenda est. 
Neque aliquod grave detrimentum pateremur, si tarn adverbia 
quam conjunctiones et interjectiones^ ad eandem classem redi- 
gerentur. Est quidem nonnihil discriminis, sed leviusculum.'' 
Cap. xiii. 

Greenwood rashly ventures a little further than any other 
person ; and upon Mr. Locke's authority, acknowledging it to 
be his duty to do what other grammarians had neglected, 
says — 

"I am sensible that what I have here done'' — (and he has 
done nothing)— "is slight and superficial to what may and 
ought to be done ; but if this shall meet with any encourage- 
jnent, I may be excited to make farther improvements in these 
matters, by taking more pains to observe nicely the several pos- 
tures of the mind in discourse.'' ^ 

Now Greenwood's Grammar did actually meet with very 
great and extraordinary encouragement; and went through 
several editions speedily during the author's life ; but he never 
fulfilled his promise : nor indeed is there any thing about him, 
to incline us to believe that he was a fit person for such an 
undertaking. 

But not to multiply quotations without end (in which you are 
much better versed than I am), you know that all philosophers, 
philologers and grammarians, who have owned a dissatisfaction 
in the accounts already given of the Particles, have yet, for 
some shuffling reason or other, all desired to be excused from 
giving a satisfactory account themselves. 

B. — But why not concur with MM. de Port Boyal, and 
the President de Brosses? They are free from the contra- 
diction and inconsistency of Mr. Harris's account of the Pre- 
positions. For they acknowledge them to have a signification. 
— "On a eu recours," say the former, "dans toutes les 
langues a une autre invention ; qui a ete di'inventer de petits 



^ 111 the same manner Greenwood slips tke Conjunctions. " But this 
shall suffice for the Conjunctions, since it would be too tedious to go 
through all the divisions of them ; and / may some other time explain 
them more largely and accurately." 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 169 

mots pour etre mis avant les noms; ce qui les a fait appeler 
Prepositions/^ 

And M. de Brosses with great ingenuousness tells us, 
{Traite de la Formation mechanique des Langues, torn. 2. 
chap. 11. art. 198.) — "Chacune des Prepositions a son sens 
propre, mais qu^on applique a beaucoup d^autres sens par ex- 
tension et par approximation. Elles sont des formules abre- 
gees_, dont Tusage est le plus frappant et le plus commode 
dans toutes les langues pour circonstancier les idees : elles 
sont d^elles-memes Racines primitives ; mais je n^ai pas trouve 
quHl fat possible d'assigner la cause de leur origine : tellement 
que j^en crois la formation purement arbitraire. Je pense de 
meme des Particules, des Articles, des Pronoms, des Relatifs, 
des Conjonctions ; en un mot, de tous les monosyllabes si 
frequens qu^on emploie pour lier les paroles d'un discours, en 
former une phrase construite, et lui donner un sens determine 
pour ceux qui Tentendent. Car ce n'est qu^en faveur de ceux 
qui ecoutent qu'on introduit cet appareil de tant de conj one- 
lions. Un homme seul au monde ne parleroit que peu'^ ou point. 
II n^auroit besoin d^aucune de ces conjonctions pour former sa 
phrase mentale. Les seuls termes principaux lui sufl&roient; 
parcequ'il en a dans Tesprit la perception circonstanciee, et 
qu^il S9ait assez sous quel aspect il les emploie. II n'en est 
pas de meme, lorsqu'il faut exprimer la phrase au dehors. Un 
tas de mots isoles ne seront non plus une phrase pour Pauditeur, 
qu^un tas de pierres toutes tail lees ne seroient une maison, 
si on ne les arrangeoit dans leur ordre, et si on ne les lioit pas 
du sable et de la chaux. L'appret de cette espece est tres- 
presse pour un homme qui veut se faire entendre. Cependant 
la nature, les images, limitation, Ponomatopee, tout lui manque 
ici : car il n^est pas question de peindre et de nommer aucun 
objet reel; mais seulement de donner a entendre de petites 
combinaisons mentales, abstraites, et vagues, Alors Fhomme 
aura use pour conjonctions des premiers sons brefs et vagues 
qui lui venoient a la bouche, L'habitude en aura bientot fait 
connoitre la force et Femploi. Ces petits signes de liaison sont 
restes en grand nombre dans chaque langue, ou Fon pent les con- 
siderer comme sons radicaux ; et ils y ont en effet leurs derives.'^ 

^ This is French reasoning, " seul au monde, il parleroit ^^eic / " 



170 OF PREPOSITIONS* [PART I. 

And again (Art. 254.) ^^ J'ai fait voir combien il etoit difficile 
de trouver le premier germe radical des Particules conjonctives 
du discours. Leur examen m'a fait pencher a croire qu^elles 
etoient pour la plupart arbitraires ; et que le prompt et pro- 
digieux besoin qu^on en a pour sMnoncer^ ayant force les hommes 
de chaque pays a prendre le premier monosyllabe ou geste vocal 
indetermine qui lui venoit a la bouche dans le besoin pressant, 
Tusage reitere en avoit determine Thabitude significative. II 
n^est guere plus aise d'assigner la premiere origine de Prepo- 
sitionSj quoiqu'un pen plus composees que les simples particules 
conjonctives.^^ 

And again (Art. 274.) " On auroit a parler aussi de la cause 
des difierentes terminaisons dans les langues_, de la signification 
des prepositions, de leur variete a cet egard : car les memes ont 
plusieurs sens tres-differents, C'est une matiere extremement 
vaste et tres-philosophique.^' 

H. — Messieurs de Port Royal and M. de Brosses deserve 
for ever to be mentioned with respect and gratitude ; but, upon 
tbis occasion, I must answer them in the words of Mer. 
Casaubon (De Lingua Hebraica) — "Persuadeant fortasse illis^ 
qui de verbis singulis, etiam vulgatissimis, a philosophis, prius 
quam imponerentur, itum in consilium credunt. Nos, qui de 
verborum origine longe aliter opinamur, plane pro fabula 
habemuSj^ p. 37. 

Language, it is true, is an Art, and a glorious one; whose 
influence extends over all the others, and in which finally all 
science whatever must centre. But an art springing from ne- 
cessity, and originally invented by artless men; who did not 
sit down like philosophers to invent " de petits mots pour etre 
mis avant les noms;^' nor yet did they take for this pur- 
pose " des premiers sons brefs et vagues qui leur venoient a la 
bouche : '' ^ but they took such and the same (whether great or 



■^ It will seem the more extraordinary that M. de Brosses should enter- 
tain this opinion of the Particles, when we remember what he truly 
says of Proper names. — "Tous les mots formant les noras propres ou 
appellatifs des personnes, ont en quelque langage que ce soil, ainsi que 
les mots formant les noms des choses, une origine certaine, une signi- 
fication determinee, une etymologie veritable. lis n'ont pas, phis que 
les autres mots, etc imposes sans cause, ni fabriques au Jiasard, seule- 
ment pour produire un bruit vague. Cepeudant comme la plupart de 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 171 

small^ whether monosyllable or polysyllable, without distinc- 
tion) as they employed upon other occasions to mention the 
same real objects. For Prepositions also are the names of real 
objects. And these petits mots happen in this case to be so, 
merely from their repeated corruption, owing to their frequent, 
long-continued, and perpetual use. 

B. — You assert then that what we call Prepositions, and 
distinguish as a separate part of speech, are not a species of 
words essentially or in any manner different from the other 
parts : that they are not '^ little words invented to put before 
nouns, and to which all languages have had recourse : '^ but that 
they are in fact either Nouns or Verbs. And that (like the 
Conjunctions) Prepositions are only words which have been 
disguised by corruption ; and that Etymology will give us in all 
languages, what Philosophy has attempted in vain. And yet 
I cannot but perceive that such words as Prepositions are 
absolutely necessary to discourse. 

H. — I acknowledge them to be undoubtedly necessary. For, 
as the necessity of the Article (or of some equivalent invention) 
follows from the impossibility of having in language a distinct 
name or particular term for each particular individual idea ;^ so 
does the necessity of the Preposition (or of some equivalent 
invention) follow from the impossibility of having in language 
a distinct complex term for each different collection of ideas 
which we may have occasion to put together in discourse. The 
addition or subtraction of any one idea to or from a collection, 
makes it a different collection : and (if there were degrees of 
impossibility) it is still more impossible to use in language 
a different and distinct complex term for each different and 
distinct collection of ideas, than it is to use a distinct particular 
term for each particular and individual idea. To supply, there- 
fore, the place of the complex terms which are wanting in 
a language, is the Preposition employed : by whose aid complex 



ces mots ne portent a I'oreille de ceux qui les entendent aucune autre 
signification que de designer les personnes nommees : c'est sur tout a leur 
egard que le vulgaire est porte a croire qu'ils sont demes de sens et 
d'etymologie." 

^ See before. Chap. V. 



173 OF PREPOSITIONS. [pART I. 

terms are prevented from being infinite or too numerous, and 
are used only for those collections of ideas which we have most 
frequently occasion to mention in discourse. And this end 
is obtained in the most simple manner in the world. For 
having occasion in communication to mention a collection of 
ideas, for which there is no one single complex term in the 
language, we either take that complex term which includes the 
greatest number, though not All, of the ideas we would com- 
municate: or else we take that complex term which includes 
Allj and the fewest ideas more than those we would communi- 
cate : and then by the help of the Preposition, we either make 
up the deficiency in the one case, or retrench the superfluity in 
the other. 
For instance, 

1. "A House WITH a Party -wall P 

2. '^ A House without a Roof J' 

In the first instance, the complex term is deficient : The 
Preposition directs to add what is wanting. In the second 
instance, the complex term is redundant : The Preposition 
directs to take away what is superfluous. 

Now considering it only in this, the most simple light, it is 
absolutely necessary, in either case, that the Preposition itself 
should have a meaning of its own : for how could we other- 
wise make known by it our intention, whether of adding to, or 
retrenching from, the deficient or redundant complex term we 
have employed? 

If to one of our modern grammarians I should say — "A 
House, Join ; " — he would ask me — " Join what ? '' — But he 
would not contend that join is an indeclinable word, and has no 
meaning of its own : because he knows that it is the Impera- 
tive of the Verb, the other parts of which are still in use ; and 
its own meaning is clear to him, though the sentence is not 
completed. If, instead of join, I should say to him, — ^' A 
House WITH ; ^^ — he would still ask the same question, " With 
what ? '^ But if I should discourse with him concerning the 
word WITH, he would tell me that it was a Preposition, an 
indeclinable word, and that it had no meaning of its own, 
but only a connotation or consignification. And yet it would 
be evident by his question, that he felt it had a mean- 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 173 

ing of its own; which is indeed the same as join.^ And 
the only difference between the two words with and join, 
is, that the other parts of the verb ^I(J>)ViSr, Pi^an, to join, 
(of which WITH is the Imperative) have ceased to be employed 
in the language.^ So that my instances stand thus. 



^ With is also sometimes the Imperative of Pyji'Sau, to be. Mr. 
TyrwMtt in Ms Glossary {A7't. but) has observed truly, — that " by 
and WITH are often synonymous." — They are always so, when with 
is the Imperative of Pyjr^an : for by is the Imperative of Beon, to he. 

He has also in his Glossaiy {Art. with) said truly, that — " With 
meschance. With misaventure. With sorwe. 5316, 7797. 6916. 4410. 
5890. 5922. are to be considered as parenthetical curses." — ^For the 
hteral meaning of those phrases is (not God yeve, but) — be miscliance^ 
be misadventure y be sorroio, to him or them concerning whom these 
words are spoken. But Mr. Tyrwhitt is mistaken, when he supposes 
— "WITH evil p'efe. 5829. with liarde grace. 7810. with 8ory grace. 
12810." — to have the same meaning : for in those three instances, 
WITH is the Imperative of ^It(>^N ; nor is any parenthetical curse 
or wish contained in either of those instances. 

As WITH means join, so the correspondent Erench Preposition avec 
means — And Have that^ or Hai^e that also. And it was formerly written 
Avecque, i. e. Avezque. So Boileau, Satire 1. 

" Quittons done pour jamais une ville importune, 
Ou I'honneur est en guerre avecque la fortune." 
And again. Satire 5. 

" Mais qui m'assurera, qu'en ce long cercle d'ans, 
A leurs fameux epoux vos ayeules fidelles 
Aux douceurs des galands furent toujours rebeUes ? 
Et comment sgavez-vous, si quelqu'audacieux 
N'a point interrompu le cours de vos ayeux ? 
Et si leur sang tout pur avecque leur noblesse, 
Est passe jusqu'a vous de Lucrece en Lucrece." 
^ We still retain in English speech, though not often used in books, 
the substantives With or Withe, Withers, and Wither-band. 

" Me thou shalt use in what thou wilt, and doe that with a slender 
twist, that none can doe with a tough with." 

Eu])hues and his England, pag. 136. 
*' They had arms under the straw in the boat ; and had cut the 
WITHES that held the oars of the town-boats, to prevent any pursuit, if 
they should be forced to fly." — Ludlow's Memoirs, pag. 435. 

And again, pag. 437. " One of the four watermen was the person 
who cut the avithes of all the town-boats, to prevent them from 
pursuing." 

" This troublesom rowing, though an ingenious invention of the 
Chiueses, hath raised this proverb amongst them, that their boats are 
paper, and their watermen iron ; because they are made of very thin 



174 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

1. A House JOIN a Party-walh 

3. A House BE-OUT a Roof, 

And indeed so far has always been plainly perceived, that 
WITH and WITHOUT are directly opposite and contradictory. 
WilkinSj without knowing what the words really were, has 
yet well expressed their meaning, where he says that with is a 
preposition — " relating to the notion of social j or circumstance 
of society affirmed; and that without is a preposition relating 
to the same notion of socialj or circumstance of society denied" 

And it would puzzle the wisest philosopher to discover 
opposition and contradiction in two words, where neither of 
them had any signification. 

B. — According then to your explanation, the Preposition 
WITHOUT, is the very same word, and has the very same mean- 
ing, as the Conjunction without. Does not this in some 
measure contradict what you before asserted, concerning the 
faithfulness of words to the standard under which they were 
originally enlisted ? For there does not appear in this case to 
be any melting down of two words into one, by such a corrup- 
tion as you before noticed in some of the Conjunctions. And 
yet here is one and the same word used both as a Conjunction 
and as a Preposition. 

H. — There is nothing at all extraordinary, much less con- 
tradictory, in this ; that one and the same word should be ap- 
plied indilBPerently either to single words or to sentences : (for 
you must observe that the apparently different application con- 
stitutes the only difference between Conjunctions and Prepo- 
sitions :) For I may very well employ the same word of direc- 
tion, whether it be to add a word or to add a sentence : And 
again, one and the same word of direction will serve as well to 
take away a word as to take away a sentence. No wonder 
therefore that our ancestors (who were ignorant of the false 

boards, like our slit deal, which are not nailed, but fastened together 
with wiTHS, in the Chinese tongue called rotang ; by which means the 
boats, though often beaten by the strong current against the rocks, 
split not, but bend and give way." — History of China. By John 
Ogilby. vol. 2. pag. 609. 

" The only furniture belonging to the houses, appears to be an oblong 
vessel made of bark, by tying up the ends with a withe." — Captain 
Cook's Description of Botany Bay. 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 175 

divisions and definitions of Grammar which we have since re- 
ceived) should have used but indifferently to direct the omission 
either of a word, or of a sentence ; and should have used with- 
out also indifferently for the omission of a sentence or of a word. 
But after our authors became more generally and better 
acquainted with the divisions and definitions of the Grreek and 
Latin Grammarians, they attempted by degrees to make our 
language also conform to those definitions and divisions. And 
after that it was_, that but ceased to be commonly used as a 
known Preposition ; and without ceased to be correctly used as 
a Conjunction. 

As the meaning of these two words but (I mean that part 
which is corrupted from Butan) and without, is exactly the 
same, our authors would most likely have had some difficulty to 
agree amongst themselves, which should be the Preposition and 
which the Conjunction; had it not been for the corruption^ of 
EOT, which becoming but, must necessarily decide the choice : 
for though without could very well supply the place of the Fre- 
position but, it could not supply the place of the Boc part of the 
Conjunction but : whereas but could entirely supply the place of 
the Conjunction without. And this, I take it, is the reason 
why but has been retained as a Conjunction, and without has 
been retained as a Preposition. 

Not however that they have been able so to banish the old 
habit of our language, as that but should always be used as a 
Conjunction, and without always as a Preposition (I mean that 
BUT should always apparently be applied to sentences, and with- 
out always to words ; for that, it must be remembered, is the 
only difference between Conjunctions and Prepositions) : for but 
is still used frequently as a Preposition : though Grammarians, 
forgetful or heedless of their own definitions, are pleased to call 
it always a Conjunction ; 

As thus, ^' All but one,^^ 

And, though it is not now an approved usage, it is very 
frequent in common speech to hear without used as a Conjunc- 
tion; where, instead of without, a correct modern speaker 
would use UNLESS, or some other equivalent acknowledged con- 
junction: and that for no other reason, but because it has 

^ See p. 100. 



176 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

pleased our Grammarians to exclude without from the number 
of Conjunctions. 

B. — And is not tliat reason sufficient^ when the best writers 
have for a long time past conformed to this arrangement ? 

H. — Undoubtedly. Nor do I mean to censure those who 
follow custom for the propriety of a particular language : I do 
not even mean to condemn the custom : for in this instance it 
is perfectly harmless. But I condemn the false philosophy 
which caused it. I condemn those who wilfully shut their 
eyes, and affect not to perceive the indifferent application of 
BUT, AND, SINCE, IF, ELSE, &c. both to wovds and to sen- 
tences ; and still endeavour by their definitions to uphold a dis- 
tinction which they know does not exist even in the practice 
of any language, and which they ought to know cannot exist 
in theory. 

To the pedagogue, indeed, who must not trouble children 
about the corruption of words, the distinction of prepositions 
and conjunctions may be useful enough (on account of the 
cases which they govern when applied to words ; and which 
they cannot govern when applied to sentences) ; and for some 
such reason, perhaps, both this and many other distinctions 
were at first introduced. Nor would they have caused any 
mischief or confusioji, if the philosopher had not adopted these 
distinctions ; taken them for real differences in nature, or in 
the operations of the human mind; and then attempted to 
account for what he did not understand. And thus the 
Grammatist has misled the Grammarian, and both of them 
the Philosopher. 

B. 

" Sans eyes, sans teeth, sans taste, sans every thing." 

This preposition too, which was formerly used instead of 
WITHOUT, you mean, I suppose, to account for in the same 
manner : It can be shewn, I suppose, to be the Imperative of 
some obsolete Saxon verb having a similar meaning. 

H. — Sans, though sometimes used instead of without, is not 
an English but a French preposition, and therefore to be derived 
from another source. 

*' Et je conserverai, malgre votre menace, 
Une ume sans couitoux, sans crainte, et sans audace." — Adelaide. 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 177 

Nor is it a verb, but a substantive: and it means simply 
Absence. It is one proofs amongst many otliers, that Plu- 
tarch's half- conjecture was not ill-founded. After all^ he 
thinks it may be worth considering_, whether the Prepositions 
may not be perhaps little fragments of words^ used in haste and 
for dispatch_, instead of the whole words.'^ Sans is corrupted 
from the preposition Senza of the Italians (by old Italian authors 
written Sanza ^) who frequently use it thus ; Senza di te, i. e. 
AssENZA di te. The French (as we have seen in Chez) omit 
the Segnacaso, and say Sans toi. And as from the Italian 
Assenza they have their Absence; or^ as they pronounce it^ 
Absance or Absans ; so have they their preposition Sans from 
Senza or Sanza. But I persuade myself that you can have 

^ Opa be [XT] KoyL^iaai Kat Bpav&fiacrij/ ovonarcov eoiKacriv, axnrep ypap.- 
fxarcov (TTrapayfiaai Kai Kepaiais ol cmevdovTes ypa<pov(ri, k. t. X. — UXaTavcKa 
ZrjrqfjiaTa, 6. 

^ " Yai alia taverna, ripariti in Casa femmine, et dove si giuoca spendi 
sanza moJo." — MacJiiavelli, Clitia, atto 3. see. 4. 

"Senza et sanza (says Menage) Da Absentia, per aferesi, lo cava il 
Cittadini. Viene secondo me da Sine. Sine, Sines, (come lo Spagnuolo 
Antes da Ante) Senes, (onde il I'rancese Sens, che si pronunzia Sans) 
Sense, Sensa, Senza. Sanza disser pin volentieri gli anticlii." 

Again Menage says, that Sans dessus dessous, should be written 
Sens dessus dessous, " corame on ecrit, Hin tout Sens, de ce Sens la, &c. 
Sens, c'est a dire, face, visage, situation, posture,'^ &c. — INIenage is 
surely wrong : for it means, loithout top or bottom, i. e. a situation of 
confusion in which you cannot discern the top from the bottom ; or say 
which is the top and which the bottom, "^'e translate it by a similar 
expression in English, Upside doicn, by our old authors' more properly 
written Up so down. 

" But the other partie was so stronge, 
That for the lawe of no statute 
There maie no right be execute : 
And upon this division 
The londe was tourned up so downe." 

Gower, lib. 2. fol. 37. p. 1. col. 2. 
" Do lawe awaie, what is a kynge ? 
Where is the right of any thynge 
If that there be no lawe in londe ? 
This ought a kynge well understonde. 
As he whiche is to lawe swore, 
That if the lawe be tbrelore 
Withouten execucion, 
It maketh a londe turne up so downe." 

Goioer, hb. 7. fol. 159. p. 1. col. 1. 



178 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

no doubt of the meaning of tins preposition Sans, when you 
find the signification of its correspondent words equally clear in 
other languages. 

The Greek preposition Xcopi^ is the corrupted Imperative of 
Xcopt^ecv, to sever, to disjoin, to separate. 

The German preposition Sonder, the imperative of Sondern, 
which has the same meaning as XcopL^ecv. 

The Dutch preposition Zonder, the imperative of Zonderen, 
with the same meaning. 

The Latin preposition Sine, i. e. Sit ne. Be not. 

The Spanish Sin, from the Latin Sine. 
^The Italian Fuori. "^ 

\ The Spanish Affuera (as Puerta from Porta) I From the 
i The French Hors^ (by their old authors writ- V Latin Foris.^ 
(. ten i^or5^) ' J 

^ Menage, Camhiamenti delle Lettere^ p. 8, exemplifies Hoes used by 
tlie French for Foi'is. 

^ " Tonte la troupe etoit lors endormie, 

FoRS le galant qui trembloit pour sa vie." 

Contes de la Fontaine. Le Midetier. 
" EUe etoit jeune et belle creature, 
Plaisoit beaucoup, Fors un point qui gatoit 
Toute I'affaire, et qui seul rebutoit 
Les plus ardens ; c'est qu'elle etoit avare." 

Contes de la Fontaine. Le Galant Escroc. 
Brantome, Fes Dames illiistres, cites an account of the funeral of 
Queen Anne of Bretagne — " Ne furent a I'oftrande Fors Monsieur 
d'Angoulesme." And again — " La reyne fut en colore de ce que tout 
ce grand convoy n'avoit passe outre, ainsi qu'elle attendoit, Fors Mon- 
sieur son fils, et le roy de Navarre." 

^ The Greek Ovpa became the Doric ^opa and the Latin Fora^ 
whence Fores, Fork, whence the Italian Fiiora, Fuore, Fuori, and the 
French Fors ; which, in the prepositive and conjunctive use of it, the 
French have latterly changed to Ilors : but they have not so changed 
it when in composition, Tliey say indeed Fauxhovrrj corruptly for 
Forshourg, as it was anciently written by Froissart and others ; [" La 
Bourg de Four n'estoit anciennement qu'un Faiixhourg qu'on appelloit 
en Savoyard Bourg de Feur, c'est a dire, Bourg de Dehors." — Bistoire 
de la Ville de Geneve, par Jacob Spon ; who gives us likewise from their 
Archives the translation of it into Burgi Foris. For the same reason, 
I suppose a part of the town of Reading, in Berkshire, is called The 
Forbery.] but in their compounds the French retain For : — " Corbleu, je 
luy passcrois mon epee au travers du corps, a elle et au galant, si elie 
avoit Forfalt'ii son lionneur." — George Dandin, act 1. sc. 4. 

From the French we have many English words preceded by For with 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 179 

Whence Hormis, (i. e,put out) by the addition of the participle 
of mettre, 

^.— If there were no other relations declared by the prepo- 
sitions, besides those of adding or taking away, perhaps this 
explanation might convince me ; but there are assuredly Prepo- 
sitions employed for very different purposes. And instead of 
selecting such instances as may happen to be suited particularly 
to your own hypothesis, I should have more satisfaction if you 
would exemplify in those which Mr. Harris has employed to 
illustrate his hypothesis. 

^* From these principles (he says, book 2. chap. 3.) it follows, 
that when we form a sentence, the substantive without difficulty 
coincides with the verb, from the natural coincidence of sub- 
stance and energy. — The Sun tvarmeth. — So likewise the energy 
with the subject on which it operates. — warmeth the Earth. — 
So likewise both substance and energy with their proper attri- 
butes* — The splendid Sun genially vmrmeth the fertile Earth. — 
But suppose we were desirous to add other substantives ; as for 
instance. Air or Beams : how would these coincide, or under 
what character could they be introduced ? Not as Nominatives 
or Accusatives, for both those places are already filled; the 
Nominative, by the substance Sim; the Accusative by the 
substance Earth. Not as Attributes to these last, or to any 
other thing : for, attributes by nature, they neither are nor can 
be made.^ Here then we perceive the rise and use of Frepo- 
sitions. By these we connect those substantives to sentences, 
which at the time are unable to coalesce of themselves. Let us 
assume for instance a pair of these connectives, thro' and 
WITH, and mark their effect upon the substances here men- 



this meaning : as, 'Forfeit^ Foreclose, &c. and we had antiently many 
more. 

[" Nee alter jam inveniatur qui forefecit, alter qui satisfecit." — S. 
Bernard. Epist. cxc. ad Innocentmm. 

In the Additional Notes to the edition of 1829, I collected some of 
the verbs compounded with roii, and suggested that " the explanation 
given by Mr. Tooke would not apply to the generality : " Mr. Ilicliard- 
8on, however, in his new Dictionary, adheres to it, and rather increases 
the confusion. See Additional Notes; and Grimm, ii. 724, /«?•, /«/r, 
faur ;—\i. 730, faurth, faurana;—^. %^^o,fora; also p. 901, 903, 912. 
—Ed.] 

^ N.B. Air Pump ; Air Gun. 

N 2 



180 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

tioned. The sjdendicl sun with his beams genially warmeth thro* 
the air the fertile earth. — The sentence as before remains intire 
and one ; the substantives required are both introduced ; and not 
a word which was there before is detruded from its proper 
place." 

The first of this pair of his connectives (with) you have 
already explained^ and I am willing to admit the explanation. 
It is, — The splendid sun join his beams — instead of one single 
complex term including sun and beams} 

But of what real object is through the name ? 

K. — Of a very common one indeed.^ For as the French 
peculiar preposition chez is no other than the Italian substan- 
tive Casa or Ca, so is the English preposition Thorough,^ 
Thoiifough, Thorotv, Through, or Thro\ no other than the Gothic 
substantive c\.)\nK5?j> o^^ the Teutonic substantive Thurtih : 
and_, like them, means Boor, gate, passage. 

So that Mr. Harris's instance (translated into modern, Eng- 
lish) stands thus, 

^^ The splendid sun — join his beams — genially warmeth — pas- 
sage the air — (or, the air being the passage or medimii) the 
fertile earth." And in the same manner may you translate 
the preposition Through in every instance Avhere Thro^ is used in 
English, or its equivalent preposition is used in any other 
language.^ 

After having seen in what manner the substantive House 
became a preposition in the French, you will not wonder to see 

^ The Sun-heams. 

^ All Particles are in truth, in all languages, the signs of the most 
common and familiar ideas, and those which we have most frequently 
occasion to communicate : they had not otherwise become Tartlcles. So 
very much mistaken was Mr. Locke, when he supposed them to be the 
signs or marks of certain operations of the mind for which we had either 
none or very deficient names ; that the Particles are always the words 
which were the most common and familiar in the language from which 
they came. 

* S. Johnson calls " Tkorongli, — the word Through extended into 
two syllables." — What could possibly be expected from such an Ety- 
mologist as this? He might, with as much verisimilitude, say that 
S/Vl^A^A ^^^s ^^^^ word Soul extended into three syllables, or that 
BXerjixoo-vvT) was the word ^Ims extended into six. 

* So, 1 suppose, the Greek word Tlopos has given the Latin and Italian 
preposition Per, the French Par, and the Spanish Por. 



CH. 



IX.] 



OF PREPOSITIONS. 



181 



Boor become a preposition in the English : and though in the 
first instance it was more easy for you to perceive the nature 
of the French preposition cliez ; because,, having no preposition 
corresponding to it in English^ there was so much prejudice out 
of your way ; yet I am persuaded you will not charge this to me 
ajs a fantastical or far-fetched etymology, when I have placed 
before you, at one view, the words employed to signify the 
same idea in those languages to which our own has the nearest 
affinity. 



English 



Substantive. 

3 Door. 
"5 ThorruJce} 

TDopa. Dupu. 
Anglo-Sax. -< Dupe. Dupe. 
(Dupa.* 

(dAnK. 

r Deure. Deur. 
\Door. Dore. 
rThure. 
iThur. Thor. 



Preposition. 
C Tliourough . Thorough . 
\ Thurgh.2 Thorow. 
(Through. Thro.^ 

\ Dupuh. Duph. 
^ Dpuh. Dop. 



Goth. 



Dutch 



German 



tpMKh. 



Deur. Door. 



Durch. 



^ "Than cometh ydelnesse, that is the yate of all harmes. This 
ydlenesse is the ThorruJce of all wycked and vylayne thonghtes." — ^hmicer, 
Persons Tale, fol. 3. p. 1. col. 2. 

^ " So in an antient roll in verse, exhibiting the descent of the family 
of the lords of Clare in Suffolk, preserved in the Austin Friary at Clare, 
and written in the year 1356. 

" So conioyned be 

Ulstris armes and Glocestris tlmrgli and tJiiirgJi, 
As shewith our wyndowes in houses thre." 

Wartons Hist, of Engl. Poetry, vol. 1. p. 302. 

" Releued by thynfynyte grace and goodness of our said lord thurgh 
the meane of the mediatrice of mercy." — The Bides and Sayinges of the 
Philosophers, 1477. 

'^ The Greeks abbreviated in the same raa^ner as the English : and 
as we use Thro for Thorough, so they used Qpa for Qvpa. Thus we find 
Ovprjdpa, the Urethra, or urine passage, compounded of Ovpoi* and evpa, 
antl by abbreviation Qpa. 

^ Eip hipan heojia cyjiicean majie 'Seafip haibben. healb hme mon on 
o]?]-ium hiiy. anb par: na3bbe ^onne ma ^ujia ^onne yeo cypice. — 
jB^lfji^h^y aj. cap. 5. Lambard. Apxaiovop-ia, fol. 30. 



182 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I, 

Buhstantive* PreposUion. 

fThurali. f Thumb. Thurah. 

Teuton \ '^^^^' '^^^^' \ '^^^^' ^^^^^^• 

i Tura. Dura. j Duruc. Duruh, 

V^Dure. (^Durch. Durh. 

Though it is not from Asia or its confines^ that we are to 
seek for the origin of this part of our language ; yet is it worth 
noticing here^ that the Greek (to which the Gothic has in many 
particulars a considerable resemblance) employs the word Ovpa 
for Door, And both the Persian (which in many particulars 
resembles the Teutonic^) and the Chaldean^ use Thro for 
Door, You will observe^ that the Teutonic uses the same word 
Thurah both for the substantive {Door), and for what is called 
the preposition (Thorough), The Dutch^ which has a strong 
antipathy to our Th, uses the very word Door for both. The 
Anglo-Saxon^ from which our language immediately descends, 
employs indifferently for Door either Dure or Thure, The 
modern German (directly contrary to the modern English) 
uses the initial Th {Thur) for our substantive (Door), and the 
initial D (Durch) for our preposition (Thorough) : and it is re- 
markable, that this same difference between the German and 
the English prevails in almost all cases where the two languages 
employ a word of the same origin having either of those initials. 
Thus Distel und Dorn — in German — are Thistles and Thorns in 
English. So the English Dear, Dollar, Deal, are in German 
Theur, Thaler, TheiL 

Minshew and Junius both concur that Door, &c. are de- 
rived from the Greek Qvpa : Skinner says, perhaps they are 
all from the Greek Qvpa : and then without any reason (or 
rather as it appears to me against all reason) chuses rather 
uselessly to derive the substantive Door from the Anglo-Saxon 
preposition Thor, Thruh, Thurh, But I am persuaded that 
Door and Thorough have one and the same Gothic origin 



^ " On n'est pas etonne de trouver du rapport entre VAnglois et le 
Persaii : car on spait que le fond de la langue Angioise est Saxon ; et 
qu'il y a unc quantitc d'cxemples qni montre une affinitc marquee entre 
rAllemand ei le Pcrsan." — Form, Mechau. des Langues, torn. 2. art. 
166. 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 183 

AA^KJ?^ mean one and the same thing ; and are in fact one 
and the same word. 

B, — There is an insuperable objection, which, I fear, you 
have not considered, to this method of accounting for the Pre- 
positions : for if they were really and merely, as you imagine, 
common Nouns and Verbs, and therefore, as you say, the 
names of real objects , how could any of them be employed to 
denote not only different -^ but even contrary relations ? Yet 
this is universally maintained, not only by Mr. Harris, but by 
Messrs. de Port Royal,* by the President de Brosses, and by all 
those writers whom you most esteem; and even by Wilkins^ 
and Locke. 

Now if these words have a meaning, as you contend, and 
are constantly used according to their meaning, which you 
must allow, (because you appeal to the use which is made of 
them as proof of the meaning which you attribute to them) ; 
how can they possibly be the names of real and unchangeable 
objects, as common nouns and verbs are? I am sure you 
must see the necessity of reconciling these contradictory 
appearances. 

H. — Most surely. And I think you will as readily acknow- 
ledge the necessity of first establishing the facts, before you 
call upon me to reconcile them. Where is the Preposition to 
be found which is at any time used in contrary or even in 
different meanings ? 

B. — Very many instances have been given ; but none 

^ " Certains mots sont Adverbes, Prepositions, et Coujonctions en meme 
temps. Et repondent ainsi en meme temps a diverses parties d'oraison, 
selon que la Grammaire les employe diversement." — Buffier, art. 150. 

* " On n'a suivi en aucuue langue, sur le sujet des prepositions, ce 
que la raison auroit desire : qui est, qu'un rapport ne fiit marque que par 
une preposition ; et qu'une preposition ne marquat qu'un seul rapport. 
Car il arrive au contrahe dans toutes les langues ce que nous avons vu 
dans ces exemples pris de la FranQoise ; qu'un meme rapport est signifie 
par plusieurs prepositions : et qu'une meme preposition marque divers 
rapports." — MM. de Fort Royal. 

^ " Some of these prepositions are absolutely determined either to 
Tdotion or to rest, or the Terminus of Motion. Others are relatively 
applicable to botJi. Concerning which this rule is to be observed : 
that those which belong to motion cannot signify rest ; but those which 
belong to rest may siguify motion in the terminua'^ — Wilkins, part 3. 
chap. 3. 



184 OF PREPOSITIONS, [PART I. 

stronger than those produced by Mr. Harris of the Preposi- 
tion FROM ; which he shews to be used to denote three very- 
different relations^ and the two last in absolute contradiction to 
each other. 

'^ rROM_,^^ he says^ ^^ denotes the detached relation of Body ; 
as when we say — These Figs came from Turkey. — So as to 
Motion and Rest, only with this difference, that here the pre- 
position varies its character with the Verb, Thus if we say — 
That lamp hangs from the deling — the preposition from 
assumes a character of quiescence. But if we say — That lamp 
is falling from the deling, — the preposition in such case 
assumes a character of motion.'^ 

Now I should be glad you would shew me what one Noun 
or Verb can be found of so versatile a character as this prepo- 
sition : what name of any one real object or sign of one idea, or 
of one collection of ideas, can have been instituted to convey 
these different and opposite meanings ? 

H. — Truly, none that I know of. But I* take the word 
FROM {preposition, if you chuse to call it so) to have as clear, 
as precise, and at all times as uniform and unequivocal a 
meaning, as any word in the language. From means merely 
BEGINNING, and nothing else. It is simply the Anglo-Saxon 
and Gothic noun Fpum, Jr^flM, Beginning, Origin, Source, 
Fountain, Author} Now then, if you please, we will apply 
this meaning to Mr. Harris's formidable instances, and try 
whether we cannot make from speak clearly for itself, with- 
out the assistance of the interpreting Verbs; who are sup- 
posed by Mr. Harris, to vary its character at will, and make 
the preposition appear as inconsistent and contradictory as 
himself. 

Figs came from Turkey. 
Lamp/«//5 from Cieling. 
Lamp hangs from Cieling. 

Came is a complex term for one species of motion. 

Falls is a complex term for another species of motion. 

Hangs is a complex term for a species of attachment. 

^ " Ne jiaebb ge y<t ^e on pjiumman pojilite. he pojihte paepman aiib 
pipmaii." That is, Annon Icgistis, quod qui eos in p'iucipio creavit, 
creavit eos marcm et foeminam ? St. Matt. xix. 4. 

[See Grimm's Grammatik, ii. 732. iii. 265. for the wovd fmm. — Ed.] 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS, 185 

Have we occasion to communicate or mention tlie com- 
mencement or BEGINNING of thcsc motions and of this 
attachment; and the place where these motions and this 
attachment commence or begin ? It is impossible to have 
complex terms for each occasion of this sort. What more 
natural then^ or more simple, than to add the signs of those 
ideas, viz. the word beginning (which will remain always 
the same) and the name of the 'place (which will perpetually 
vary) ? 

Thus, 
" Figs came — beginning Turkey. 
Lamp falls — beginning Cieling. 
Lamp hangs — beginning Cieling." 

That is 
Turkey the Flace of beginning to come. 
Cieling the Place of beginning to fall. 
Cieling the Place of beginning to hang. 

B. — You have here shown its meaning when it relates to 

place; but Wilkins tells us, that "from refers primarily to 

place and situation : and secondarily to time.^^ So that you 
have yet given but half its meaning. 

— " FiiOM morn till night th' eternal larum rang." — 

There is no place referred to in this line. 

H. — From relates to every thing to which beginning re- 
lates,^ and to nothing else : and therefore is referable to Time 



^ Is it unreasonable to suppose that, if the meaning of this word 
from, and of its correspondent prepositions in other languages, had 
been clearly understood, tlie Greek and Latin Churches would never 
have differed concerning the Eternal Procession of the Holy Ghost 
FROM the Father, or from the Father and the Son ? And that, if they 
had been determined to separate, they would at least have chosen some 
safer cause of schism ? 

''Apelles. I have now, Campaspe, almost made an end. 
Campaspe. You told me, Apelles, you would never end. 
Jp. Never end my love : for it shall be Eternal. 
Cam. That is, neither to have Beginning nor ending." 

Campaspe by John Lilly, act 4. sc. 4. 
" Eternal sui'e, as without end 



Without Beginning. 



Paradise Regained, book 4. line 3'Jl. 



186 OF PREPOSITIONS. [part I. 

as well as to inotion : without wMcli indeed there can be no 
Time, 

" The larum rang beginning Morning : " 

i. e. Morning being the time of its beginning to ring. 

B. — Still I have difficulty to trust to this explanation. For 
Dr. S. Johnson has numbered up twenty different meanings of 
this Preposition from. He says, it denotes, 

^^ 1. Privation. 

2. Reception. 

3. Descent or Birth. 

4. Transmission. 

5. Abstraction. 

" To say that Immensity does not signify boundless space, and that 
Eternity does not signify duration or time witJiout Beginning and end ; 
is, I think, affirming that words have no meaning." — Lr. Sam. Clarke's 
fifth Reply to Leibnitz' 8 fifth Paper, sect. 104-106. 

Is it presumptuous to say, that the explanation of this single prepo- 
sition would have decided the controversy more efiectually, tlian all the 
authorities and all the solid arguments produced by the wise and honest 
bishop Procopowicz ? and thus have withheld one handle at least of 
reproach, from those who assert — " Que Ton pourroit justement definir 
la theologie — L'art de composer cles chimeres en combinant ensemble 
des qualites impossibles a concilier." — Systeme de la Nature, tom. 2. 
p. 55. 

[In order to see how far this reproach is applicable to some of the 
theology of the present day, take the following : 

" But, alas ! here proud men, by attempting to explain what is inex- 
plicable, have rendered it necessarj^ for the Church to be more explicit'* 
— p. 18. "The Church is now compelled, by the perverseness of dis- 

puters, to state plainly what has been revealed to her Still, observe, 

that the Church is not attempting to explain. She only asserts." — p. 15. 
And again, "This verse is not added as an explanation of an inexpli- 
cable mystery, but simply to shew what the Church means, &c." — p. 22. 
— Letter on the Athanasian Creed, by Walter Farquhar Hook, D.D. 
1838. 

Thus, she can " sJieio what she means " without " explanation^'' — 
can *' mean " that which is *' inexplicable^' — can be " explicit " without 
^'•explaining'' — and ^^ state plainly" i\?ii which she does "not attempt 
to explain." " She only asserts " what is " inexplicable," (and there- 
fore unintelligible,) but without which "it is impossible to understand 
Scripture ; " — p. 8. : i. e. Scripture cannot be understood but in a sense 
that is unintelligible. — The "proud men," and "perverse disputers," are 
doubtless such as lack " that prostration of the understanding and will, 
which are indispensable in Christian instruction." See the Charge 
delivered at his Primary Visitation, 1815, by his Grace the Archbishop of 
Canterbury. — Ed.] 



CIl. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 187 

6. Succession, 

7. Emission. 

8. Progress from p'emises to inferences. 

9. Place or Person from loliom a message is Irotight. 

10. Extraction. 

11. Reason or Motive. 

12. Ground or Cause. 

13. Distance. 

14. Separation or Recession. 

15. Exemption or Deliverance. 

16. Absence. 

17. Derivation. 

18. Distance from the past, 

19. Contrary to. 

20. Removal:' 

To ttese he adds twenty-two other manners of using it. And 
he has accompanied each with instances sufficiently numerous^ 
as proofs.^ 

^. — ^And yet in all his instances (which, I believe,, are above 
seventh/) froM continues to retain invariably one and the same 
single meaning. Consult them : and add to them as many 
more instances as you please; and yet (if I have explained 
myself as clearly as I ought, and as I think I have done) no 
further assistance of mine will be necessary to enable you to 
extract the same meaning of the word from from all of them. 



^ Greenwood says — " From signifies Motion from a place ; and then it 
is put in opposition to to. 

"3. It is used to denote tlie Beginning of time. 

"3. It denotes tlie Original of tilings. 

"4. It denotes the Order of a thing. ("And in these three last 
senses it is put before Adverhs."") 

"5. It signifies Off.'' 

The caprice of language is worth remarking in the words Van (the 
Dutch IVom) and Rear, both of which we have retained in English as 
Suhstantives, and therefore they are allowed with us to have a meaning. 
But being only employed as Pi^epositions by the Dutch, Italian and 
Trench, our philosophers cannot be persuaded to allow them any trans- 
marine meaning. — Animum mutant qui trans mare currunt. And thus 
Van in Holland, Von in Germany, Avanti in Italy, and Avant and Per- 
riere in France, are merely <les pdit^i mots invenlcs pour aire mis avant 
les Noms, or, in the van of Nouns. 



188 OF PREPOSITIONS. [pART I. 

And you will plainly perceive that the "characters of quies- 
cence and of motion,'' attributed by Mr. Harris to the word 
FROM, belong indeed to the words Hang and Fall, used in the 
different sentences. And by the same manner of transferring 
to the preposition the meaning of some other word in the sen- 
tencCj hav^ all Johnson's and Greenwood's supposed different 
meanings arisen. 

B. — You observed, some time since, that the Prepositions 
WITH and WITHOUT were directly opposite and contradictory 
to each other. Now the same opposition is evident in some 
other of the prepositions : And this circumstance, I should 
imagine, must much facilitate and shorten the search of the 
etymologist : For having once discovered the meaning of one 
of the adverse parties, the meaning of the other, I suppose, 
must follow of course. Thus — Going to a place, is directly 
the contrary of — Going from a place. — If then you are right 
in your explanation of from; (and I will not deny that ap- 
pearances are hitherto in your favour ;) since from means 
Commencement or Beginning, to must mean End or Termina- 
tion. And indeed I perceive that, if we produce Mr. Harris's 
instances, and say, 

" These figs came from Turkey to England. 
The lamp falls from the deling to the ground. 
The lamp hangs from the deling to the floor ;'' 

as the word from denotes the comynenceynent of the motion and 
hanging ; so does the word to denote their termination : and 
the places where they end or terminate, are respectively Eng- 
land, Ground, Floor. 

And since we have as frequently occasion to mention the 
termination, as we have to mention the commencement of motion 
or time ; no doubt it was as likely that the word denoting End 
should become a particle or preposition, as the word which 
signified Beginning. But in the use of these two words to 
and from, I observe a remarkable difference. From seems 
to have two opposites ; which ought therefore to mean the same 
thing: and, if meaning the same, to be used indifferently at 
pleasure. We always use from (and From only) for the be- 
ginning either of time or motion: but for the termination, we 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 189 

apply sometimes to and sometimes till : ^ to, indifferently 
either to place or time ; but till to time only and never to place. 
Thus_, we may say_, 

''From morn to 7iigJit tli eternal larum rang.^^ 

or, From morn till night, &c. 

But we cannot say, — From Turkey till England. 

H. — The opposition of Prepositions, as far as it reaches, does 
undoubtedly assist us much in the discovery of the meaning 
of each opposite. And if, by the total or partial extinction 
of an original language, there was no root left in the ground 
for an etymologist to dig up, the philosopher ought no doubt 
to be satisfied with reasoning from the contrariety. But I fear 
much, that the inveterate prejudices which I have to encounter, 
and which for two thousand years have universally passed for 
learning throughout the world, and for deep learning too, would 
not easily give way to any arguments of mine a priori. I am 
therefore compelled to resort to etymology, and to bring for- 
ward the original word as well as its meaning. That same 
etymology will very easily account for the peculiarity you have 
noticed : and the difficulty solved, like other enemies subdued^ 
will become an useful ally and additional strength to the con- 
queror. 

The opposition to the preposition from, resides singly in the 
preposition to.^ Which has not perhaps (for I am not clear that 
it has not) precisely the signification of End or Termination, 
but of something tantamount or equivalent. The preposition 
TO (in Dutch written toe and tot, a little nearer to the original) 
is the Gothic substantive T^VllI or T/VtlhTS, i. e. Act, 
Effect, Result, Consummation. Which Gothic substantive is 
indeed itself no other than the past participle T^VHld. or 
TAnicVS, of the verb TAHQA^^' agere. And what is 
done, is terminated, ended, finished."^ 

^ {Till seems to be the Scandinavian form. See Ihre : — also Grimm, 
iii. 257.— Ed.] 

^ [See Grimm, ii. 722. iii. 254 : da, tu, zu, ze, zi, to. — Ed.] 

^ In the Teutonic, this verb is written Tuau or Tuon, whence the 
modem German Thuu, and its preposition (varying hke its verb) Tu. 
[Zn.] 

In the Anglo-Saxon the verb is Teojan, and preposition To. 

* " Dativus cuicunque orationi adjuiigi potest, in qua acquisitio vel 



190 OF PREPOSITIONS. [part 1. 

After this derivation, it will not appear in the least myste- 

} rious or wonderful that we should, in a peculiar manner, in 

/ English, prefix this same word to to the infinitive of our verbs. 

f Tor the verbs, in English, not being distinguished, as in other 

I languages, by a peculiar termination, and it being sometimes 

{ impossible to distinguish them by their place, when the old 

I termination of the Anglo-Saxon verbs was dropped, this word 

\ TO (i. e. Act) became necessary to be prefixed, in order to dis- 

I tinguish them from nouns, and to invest them with the verbal 

I character : for there is no difference between the noun. Love, 

I and the verb, to Love, but what must be comprised in the 

\ prefix TO. 

The infinitive, therefore, appears plainly to be, what the 
Stoics called it, the very verb itself; pure and uncompounded 
with the various accidents of mood, of number, of gender, of 
person, and (in English) of tense ; which accidents are, in some 
languages, joined to the verb by variety of termination ; and in 
some, by an additional word signifying the added circumstance. 
And if our English Grammarians and Philosophers had trusted 
t, something less to their reading and a little more to their own 
I reflection, I cannot help thinking that the very awkwardness 
j and imperfection of our own language, in this particular of the 
I infinitive, would have been a great benefit to them in all their 
I difficulties about the verb : and would have led them to un- 
\ derstand and explain that which the perfection of more arti- 
\ ficial and improved languages contributed to conceal from 
\ others. For I reckon it a great advantage which an English 
! philosopher has over those who are acquainted with such lan- 
[ guages only v/hich do this business by termination. For 
though I think I have good reasons to believe, that all these 
Terminations may likewise be traced to their respective origin ; 
and that, however artificial they may now appear to us, they 
were not originally the effect of premeditated and deliberate 
art, but separate words by length of time corrupted and coa- 
lescing with the words of which they are now considered as 
the Terminations : Yet this was less likely to be suspected by 
others. And if it had been suspected, they would have had 

ademtio, coramodum aut incoramodum, aut finis, qucm in scholis 
Logici Finem cui dicuiit, significatur." — Scioj)j)ii Gram. Philosoph. 
p. xiii. 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 191 

much further to travel to their journey's end, and through a 
road much more embarrassed ; as the corruption in those lan- 
guages is of much longer standing than in ours, and more 
complex. 

And yet, by what fatality I know not, our Grammarians 
have not only slighted, but have even been afraid to touch, 
this friendly clue : for of all the points which they endeavour 
to shuffle over, there is none in which they do it more grossly 
than in this of the Infinitive. 

Some are contented to call to, a mark of the infinitive 
mood.-^ But how, or why, it is so, they are totally silent. 

Others call it a Preposition. 

Others, a Particle. 

Skinner calls it an Equivocal Article. 

And others ^ throw it into that common sink and repository 
of all heterogeneous unknown corruptions, the Adverb. 

And when they have thus given it a name, they hope you 
will be satisfied : at least they trust that they shall not be 
arraigned for this conduct ; because those who should arraign 
them, will need the same shift for themselves. 

There is one mistake, however, from which this Prefix to 
ought to have rescued them : they should not have repeated 
the error, of insisting that the Infinitive was a mere Noun:^ 

^ Lowth (page 66) says — *' The Preposition to placed before the 
Verb makes the Infinitive Mood.'^ Now this is manifestly not so : for 
TO placed before the Verb loveth, will not make the Infinitive Mood. 
He would have said more truly, that to placed before some Nouns 
makes Verhs. But of this I shall have occasion to speak hereafter, when 
I come to treat of the Verb. 

^ " Melius infinitiva sua Anglo-Saxones per term, an, quam nos hodie 
aquivoco illo articulo, to prsemisso, ssepe etiam omisso, distinxerunt." — 
Canones Etymologici. 

* S. Johnson says — " To, adverb [to, Saxon ; Te, Dutch.]" And 
then, according to his usual method, (a very convenient one for making 
a bulky book Avithout trouble) proceeds to give instances of its various 
significations, viz. " 1. A particle coming between two verbs, and noting 
the second as the object of the first. 2. It notes the hitention. 3. After 
an adjective it notes its object. 4. l^oim^ futurity .'' 

* " The words Adiones and Lectiones (Wilkins says) are but the plural 
number of Agere, Legere.'' However, it must be acknowledged that 
Wilkins endeavours to save himself by calling the Infinitive, not a mere 
noun, but a Participle Substantive. — " that which is called the Infinitive 
Mode should, according to the true analogy of speech, be styled a 



192 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

since it was found necessary in English to add another word 
(viz.) To^ merely to distinguish the Infinitive from the Noun, 
after the Infinitive had lost that distinguishing Termination which 
it had formerly.^ 

B. — I do not mean hastily and without further considera- 
tion absolutely to dissent from what you have said^ because 
some part of it appears to me plausible enough. And had 
you confined yourself only to the Segnacaso or Preposition, I 
should not suddenly have found much to oflPer in reply. But 
when instead of the Segnacaso (as Buonmattei classes it)^ or 
the Preposition (as all others call it)^ or the mark of the 
Infinitive (as it is peculiarly used in English), you direct me 
to consider it as the necessary and distinguishing sign of the 
VERB, you do yourself throw difficulties in my way which it 
will be incumbent on you to remove. For it is impossible 
not to observe, that the Infinitive is not the only part of our 
English verbs, which does not differ from the noun : and it 
rests upon you to explain why this necessary sign of the Verb 
should be prefixed only to the Infinitive, and not also to those 
other parts of the verb in English which have no distinguishing 
Termination. 

H. — The fact is undoubtedly as you have stated it. There 
are certainly other parts of the English verb, undistinguished 



Participle Substantive. There hath been formerly much dispute among 
some learned men, whither the notion called the Infinitive Mode ought 
to be reduced according to the philosophy of speech. Some would 
have it to be the prime and principal verb ; as signifying more directly 
the notion of action : and then the other varieties of the verb should 
be but the inflexions of this. Others question whether the Infinitive 
Mode be a verb or no, because in the Greek it receives articles as a 
noun. Scaliger concludes it to be a verb, but will not admit it to be a 
Mode. Vossius adds, that though it be not Modus in Actu, yet it is 
Modus in Potentia. All which difficulties will be most clearly stated by 
asserting it to be a Substantive Participle.^^ 

Beat Character, part 4. chap. 6. 

Mr. Harris without any palliation says, — " These Infinitives go fur- 
ther. They not only lay aside the character of Attributives, but they 
also assume that oi Substantives.^'' — Hermes, book 1. chap. 8. 

^ [It should be noted that in Anglo-Saxon the sign ro had always 
been prefixed to the Future Infinitive : and Lye adds, " interdum, re- 
dundantcr tamen, puris, i. e. primitivis Infinitivis : ut, To ^epian, ser* 
vire, Chron. Sax. 118. 10, &c."— See Additional Notes.— Ed.] 



CH. IX.] or PREPOSITIONS. 193 

from the noun by termination ; but this is to me rather a 
circumstance of confirmation than an objection. For the 
truth is^ that to them also [and to those parts only which 
have not a distinguishing termination) as well as to the Infini- 
tive_, is this distinguishing sign equally necessary, and equally 
prefixed. Do (the auxiliary verb as it has been called^) is 
derived from the same root, and is indeed the same word as 
TO. The difference between a t and a d is so very small, 
that an Etymologist knows by the practice of languages, and 
an Anatomist by the reason of that practice, that in the 

^ "The verb to do (says Mr. Tyrwhitt, Essay, Note 37) is con- 
sidered by Wallis and other later grammarians, as an auxiliary verb. 
It is so used, though very rarely, by Chaucer. It must be confessed 
that the exact power which no, as an auxiliary, now has in our lan- 
guage, is not easy to be defined, and still less to be accounted for from 
Analogy.''^ 

In Chaucer's time the distinguishing terminations of the verb still 
remained, although not constantly employed ; and he availed himself 
of that situation of the language, either to use them or drop them, as 
best suited his purpose, and sometimes he uses both termination and 
sign. Thus, in the Wife of Bathes Tale, he drops the Infinitive termi- 
nation ; and uses to. 

" My liege lady : generally, quod he. 
Women desyren to liam soveraynte 
As well over her husbondes as her love." 
And again a few lines after, he uses the infinitive termination, 
excluding to. 

*' In al the court nas there wife ne mayde 
Ne widow, that contraried that he saide. 
But said, he was worthy han his lyfe.'* 
So also, 

" I trowe that if Envye, iwys, 
Knewe the best man that is 
On thys syde or beyonde the see, 
Yet somwhat lacken him wold she." 

Romaunt of the Rose. 
The same may be shewn by innumerable other instances throughout 
Chaucer. 

B. Jonson, in his Grammar, says — " The Persons plural keepe tlie 
termination of the first person singular. In former times, till al)out 
the reigne of King Henry the Eighth, they were wont to be formed by 
adding en. But now (whatsoever is the cause) it hath quite growne out 
of use, and that other so generally prevailed that I dare not presume to 
set this afoot againe." This is the reason why Chaucer used both to and 
DO more rarely than we use them at present. 



194 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

derivation of words it is scarce worth regarding.^ And for 
the same reason that to is put before the Infinitive, no used 
formerly to be put before such other parts of the verb which 
likewise were not distinguished from the noun by termination. 
As we still say — I do love, — instead of — / love. And / 
DOED or DID love — instead of / loved. But it is worth our 
while to observe, that if a distinguishing termination is used, 
then the distinguishing do or did must be omitted, the Ter- 
mination fulfilling its ofiice. And therefore we never find — / 
DID loved; or He doth loveth. But / did love; He doth 
love. 

It is not indeed an approved practice at present, to use do 
before those parts of the Verb, they being now by custom 
sufficiently distinguished by their Place : and therefore the 
redundancy is now avoided, and do is considered, in that 
case, as unnecessary and expletive. 

However it is still used, and is the common practice, and 
should be used, whenever the distinguishing Place is disturbed 
by Interrogation, or by the insertion of a Negation, or of some 
other words between the nominative case and the verb. As, — 

He DOES not love the truth. 

Does he love the truth ? 

He does at the same time love the truth. 

And if we chuse to avoid the use of this verbal Sign, do, 
we must supply its place by a distinguishing termination to the 
verb. As, — 

He loveth not the truth. 

Loveth he the truth ? 

He at the same time loveth the truth. 

Or where the verb has not a distinguishing termination (as in 
plurals) — 

They do not love the truth ; 

Do they love the truth ? 

They do at the same time love the truth — 

Here, if we wish to avoid the verbal sign, we must remove the 
negative or other intervening word or words from between the 

* See the Note, page 47. 



CH. IX.J OF PREPOSITIONS. 195 

nominative case and the verb ; and so restore the distinguishing 
Place, As, — 

They love not the truth. 

Love they the truth ? 

At the same time they love the truth.^ 

And thus we see that, though we cannot, as Mr. Tyrwhitt 
truly says, account for the use of this verbal sign from any 
Analogy to other languages, yet there is no caprice in these 
methods of employing to and do, so differently from the 
practice of other languages : but that they arise from the 
peculiar method which the English language has taken to 
arrive at the same necessary end, which other languages attain 
by distinguishing Termination, 

B. — I observe, that Junius and Skinner and Johnson have 
not chosen to give the slightest hint concerning the derivation 
of TO.* Minshew distinguishes between the preposition to, 
and the sign of the Infinitive to. Of the first he is silent, 
and of the latter he says — " to, as to make, to walk, to do, a 
Grseco articulo to; idem est ut to iroLeiv, to ireptTraTeiv, to 
irpaTTecv," But Dr. Gregory Sharpe is persuaded that our 
language has taken it fi:om the Hebrew. And Vossius derives 
the correspondent Latin Preposition ad from the same source. 

H. — ^Yes. But our Gothic and Anglo-Saxon ancestors 
were not altogether so fond of the Hebrew, nor quite so well 
acquainted with it, as Dr. Sharpe and Vossius were. And if 
Boerhaave could not consent, and Voltaire^ thought it ridi- 
culous, to seek a remedy in South America for a disease which 
was prevalent in the North of Europe, how much more would 
they have resisted the etymology of this pretended Jewish 



^ It is not however uncommon to say — "They, at the same time, 
love the truth." Where the intervening words {at the same time) are 
considered as merely parenthetical, and the mind of the speaker still 
preserves the connexion of place between the nominative case and the 
verb. 

^ [" Zu, ad. Goth, at et du ; Franc, za^ ze^ et az^ &c. Omnia 
affinia Latino ad. Nam ad et to se mutuo producunt per anastro- 
phen." — Wachter. Grimm supposes that to and at may be identical, 
and have the same origin with the Latin ad. Grammat. iii. p. 253, 
254.— Ed.] 

^ " La Quinquina, seul specifique contre les ficvres intermittentes, 

o 2 



196 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

Preposition ! For my own part^ I am persuaded that the 
correspondent Latin Preposition ad has a more natural origin,, 
and a meaning similar to that of to. It is merely the past 
participle of Agere} (Which past participle is likewise a 
Latin Substantive,) 

r.aGDum «GD AD 

agitum-agtum < or — or — or 

^aCTUm «CT AT. 



The most superficial reader of Latin verse knows how easily 
the Romans dropped their final um : for their poets would 
never have taken that licence^ had it not been pi'eviously jus- 
tified by common pronunciation. And a little consideration of 
the organs and practice of speech, will convince him how easily 
Agd or Act would become ad or at/ as indeed this preposi- 

place par la nature dans ies montagnes du Perou, tandis qu^elle a mis 
la fievre dans le reste du monde." — Voltaire^ Hist. Generate, 

" II meurit a Mocha dans le sable Arabique 
Ce caffe necessaire aux pays des frimats ; 
II met la fievre en nos climats, 
Et le remede en Amerique." 

Voltaire, Lettre au Roi de J^rmse, 

^ My much valued and valuable friend Dr. Warner, the very inge- 
nious author of Metuonariston, or a new pleasure recommended, in a 
dissertation upon Greek and Latin prosody, has remarked that — " C and 
G were by the Eomans always pronounced hard, i. e. as the Greek K 
and r, before all vowels : which sound of them it would have been 
well if we had retained ; for, had this been done, the inconvenience of 
many equivocal sounds, and much appearance of irregularity in the 
language, would have been avoided." — Perhaps it may seem superfluous 
to cite any thing from a book which must assuredly be in every classical 
hand : but it is necessary for me here to remind the reader of this cir- 
cumstance ; lest, instead of Agger e and Aggitum he should pronounce 
these words Adjere and Adjitum, and be disgusted with a derivation 
which might then seem forced and unnatural. 

^ If the reader keeps in mind the note to page 47, he will easily per- 
ceive how actum became the irregular participle of agere, instead of 
agitum or agtum. Por it depended entirely on the employment or 
omission of the compression there noticed. And it is observable, that 
in all languages (for the natural reason is the same) if two of the letters 
(coupled in that note) come together, in one of which the compression 
should be employed and in the other omitted, the speaker for his own 
convenience will either employ the compression in both, or omit it in 
both ; and that without any regard to the written character. Thus 
(amongst innumerable instances) an Englishman pronounces — oBzerve — 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 197 

tion was indifferently written by the antients. By the moderns 
the preposition was written ad with the d only_, in order to dis- 
tinguish it from the other corrupt word called the conjunction, 
at; which for the same reason was written with the t only, 
though that likewise had antiently been written, as the pre^ 
position^ either ad or at.^ 

B. — You have not yet accounted for the different employment 
of TILL and TO. 

H. — That TILL should be opposed to from, only when we 
are talking of Time, and upon no other occasion, is evidently 
for this reason, (viz.) that till is a word compounded of to 
and While, i. e. Time. And you will observe that the coales- 
cence of these two words, To-hpile, took place in the language 
long before the present wanton and superfluous use of the 
article the, which by the prevailing custom of modern speech 
is now interposed. So that when we say — '^ From morn till 
night," — it is no more than if we said — " From morn to time 
night.''' ^ When we say — " From morn to night,'' the word 
Time is omitted as unnecessary. So we might say — "From 
Turkey to the place called England ; " or " to place England." 
But we leave out the mention of Place, as superfluous, and say 
only — " to England." 

B. — You acknowledge then that the opposition of preposi- 
tions is useful, as far as it reaches. But, besides their opposi- 



and a Frencliman — observer. So we learn from Quinctilian (lib. 1. 
cap. 7.) that the Romans pronounced ovtinuit, though they wrote 
oBthmlt. — " Cum dico ohtinnit, secundam b literam ratio poscit ; aures 
magis audiunt p." — In the same manner a Roman would pronounce 
the word either aGDWji or acTum, that he might not, in two letters 
coming close together, shift so instantly from the employnitnt to the 
omissiou of the compression. 

* " Ad et At, non tantum ob significationem, sed et originem 
diversam, diversimode scribere satiiis est." — G. J. Vossius, Etymol. 
Ling. Lat. 

^ It is not unusual with the common people, and some antient 
authors, to use TFJdle alone as a preposition ; that is, to leave out to, 
and say — I will stay ^Y'[\\'LYJ Eceuinfj. Instead of — till Evening; or, 
TO while Evening. That is — / will stay time Evening, — instead of — 
TO TIME Eoening. Thus — " Sygeberte wyth hys two bretlicrnc gave 
backc whyle they came to the ryver of Sigoune." — "lie coinmnunded 
her to be bounden to a wylde horse tayle by the here of her hcdde and so 
to be drawcn whyle she r'evc dede." 



198 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

tion and absolute contradiction, I should imagine that the 
marked and distinguished manner also^ in which different pre- 
positions are sometimes used in the same sentence, must very 
much tend to facilitate the discovery of their distinct significa- 
tions. 

" Well ! His e^en so ! I have got the London disease they call 
Love, I am sick of my husband, and for my gallant, '' ^ 

Love makes her sick of, and sick for. Here of and for 
seem almost placed in opposition ; at least their effects in the 
sentence are most evidently different ; for, by the help of these 
two Prepositions alone, and without the assistance of any other 
words, she expresses the two contrary affections of Loathing and 
Desire, 

H. — ^No. Small assistance indeed, if any, can be derived 
from such instances as this. I rather think they tend to mis- 
lead than to direct an inquirer. Love was not here the only 
disease. This poor lady had a complication of distempers; 
she had two disorders: a sickness of Loathing — and a sick- 
ness OF Desire. She was sick for Disgust, and sick for 
Love. 

Sick OF disgust for her husband. 

Sick OF love for her gallant. 

Sick FOR disgust of her husband. 

Sick FOR love of her gallant. 

Her disgust was the offspring of her husband, proceeded 
from her husband, was begotten upon her by her husband. 
Her gallant was the cause of her love. 

I think I have clearly expressed the meaning of her declara- 
tion. And I have been purposely tautologous, that by my 
indifferent application of the two words of and for — both to 
her disgust and to her love, the smallest appearance of oppo- 
sition between these prepositions might be done away. Indeed, 
the difference between them {thus considered) appears to be so 
small, that the author^ if it had pleased him, might have used 
OF, where he has put for. And that he might so have done, 
the following is a proof. 

^ Wychcrley's Country Wife. 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 199 

" Marian, Come, Amie, you'll go with us, 
" Amie, I am not well, 

"Lionel, She's sick of the young shep'ard that heJcist 
her:'"- 

In the same manner we may, with equal propriety, say — 
" We are sich of hunger P — or, " We are sick for hunger," 
And in both cases we shall have expressed precisely the same 
thing. 

B. — ^'T is certainly so in practice. But is that practice jus- 
tifiable ? For the words still seem to me to have a very dif- 
ferent import. Do you mean to say that the words of and for 
are synonymous? 

H. — Very far from it. I believe they difier as widely as 
CAUSE and consequence. I imagine the word for (whether 
denominated Preposition, Conjunction, or Adverb) to be a Noun, 
and to have always one and the same single signification, 
viz. CAUSE, and nothing else. Though Greenwood attributes 
to it eighteen, and S. Zoh.w&on forty -six different meanings: 
for which Greenwood cites above forty, and Johnson above 
two-hundred instances. But, with a little attention to their 
instances, you will easily perceive, that they usually attribute 
to the Prejjosition the meaning of some other words in the 
sentence. 

Junius (changing p into f, and by metathesis of the letter r) 
derives For from the Greek Upo} Skinner from the Latin 
Pro, But I believe it to be no other than the Gothic substan- 
tive Jt/ViKINA, cause. 

I imagine also that Of (in the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon 
Al^ and TCp) is a fragment of the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon 
AI^AKAj posteritas, &c. 7C}:opa, proles, &c.^ That it is a 



^ Sad Shepherd, act 1. sc. 6. 

* [Dr. Jamieson adheres to this opinion ; and gives the Gothic faur^ 
and Isl. fyrer, as having the same origin. — Hermes Scythicus, p. 95. 
See also Grimm, iii. 256. — Ed.] 

^ " Of, a, ab, abs, de. A.S. Op. D. Aff. B. Af. Goth. Al^. 
Exprimunt Gr. airo, ab, de : praesertim cum otto ante vocabulum ab 
adspiratione incipiens, fiat a0'." — Junius. 

Minshew and Skinner derive of from the Latin ab, and that from the 
Greek otto. 



200 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

noun substantive^ and means always consequence, offspring , 
successor, follower, &c. 

And I think it not unworthy of remark, that whilst the old 
patronymical termination of our northern ancestors was son, 
the Sclavonic and Russian patronymic was of. Thus whom 
the English and Swedes named Teterson, the Russians called 
FeterJiof. And as a polite foreign affectation afterwards in- 
duced some of our ancestors to assume Fils or Fitz (i. e. Fils or 
Filius) instead of son; so the Russian affectation in more 
modern times changed of to VitcJi (i. e. Fitz, Fils or Filius) and 
FeterJiof hQCdimQ Petrovitch or Fetrowitz. 

So M. de Brosses (tom. 2. p. 295.) observes of the Ro- 
mans — " Remarquons sur les noms propres des families Ro- 
maines qu^il n^y en a pas un seul qui ne soit termine en i2is ; 
desinence fort semblable ^ V vm des Grecs, c'est a dire 
flius.'^ ^ 

• F. — Stop, stop, Sir. Not so hasty, I beseech you. Let 
us leave the Swedes, and the Russians, and the Greeks, and 
the Romans, out of the question for the present; and confine 
yourself, if you please, as in the beginning you confined my 
enquiry, to the English only. Above two hundred instances, 
do you say, produced by Johnson as proofs of at least forty -six 
different meanings of this one preposition for, when Harris 
will not allow one single meaning to all the prepositions in the 
world together ! And is it possible that one and the same 
author, knowing this, should in the same short preface, and in 
the compass of a very few short pages, acknowledge the former 
to be " the person hest qualified to give a perfect Grammar^' ^ and 
yet compliment the grammar of the latter, as the standard 
of accuracy, acuteness and perfection ! ^ 

F[. — Oh, my dear Sir, the wise men of this world know full 
well that the family of the Blandishes^ are universal favourites. 

^ "Et qiiamvis nunc dierum liabeant quidem, ad Anglorum iniita- 
tionem, familiarum nomina; sunt tamen ea pleniraque mere patrony- 
mica : sunt enim Price, Powel, Bowel, Bovven, Pugh, Parry, Penry, 
Pricliard, Probcrt, Proger, &c. nihil aliud quam Jp Kliys, Jp Howel, 
Jj) Owen, Ap Hugh, Ap Harry, Ap Henry, Ap Eichard, Ap Robert, Ap 
Roger, &c ap, hoc est mab, filius." — VVallis, Preface. 

^ See A Short Introduction to English Gram. Preface, p. 6. 

'' Sec id. p. 14. 

^ See the Heiress, (one little morsel of false moral excepted,) the 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 201 

Good breeding and policy direct us to mention the living only 
with praise ; and if we do at any time hazard a censure^ to let 
it fall only on the dead. 

B. — Pray, which of those qualities dictated that remark ? 

H. — Neither. But a quality which passes for brutality 
and ill-nature : and which, in spite of hard blows and heavy 
burdens, would make me rather chuse in the scale of beings to 
exist a mastiff or a mule, than a monkey or a lap-dog. But 
why have you overlooked my civility to Mr. Harris ? Do you 
not perceive, that by contending for only one meaning to the 
word FOR, I am forty-five times more complaisant to him than 
Johnson is ? 

B. — He loves every thing that is Greek, and no doubt there- 
fore will owe you many thanks for this Greeh favour. — JDanaos 
dona ferentes. — But confirm it if you please ; and (if you can) 
strengthen your doubtful etymology (which I think wants 
strengthening) by extracting your single meaning of for from 
all Greenwood's and Johnson's numerous instances. 

H. — That would be a tedious task ; and, I trust, unnecessary ; 
and for that reason only I have not pursued the method you 
now propose, with all the other particles which I have before 
explained. But as this manner of considering the Prepositions, 
though many years familiar to me, is novel to you, T may per- 
haps suppose it to be easier and clearer than it may at first sight 
appear to others. I will risque therefore your impatience, 
whilst I explain one single instance under each separate 
meaning attributed to for. 

Greenwood says — " The Preposition for has a great many 
significations, and denotes chiefly for what purpose , end, or use, 
or for whose benefit or damage anything is done; As — Christ 
died FOR tts.^' ^ [i. e. Caitse us ; or, We being the Caitse of his 
dying.] 

"\. For serves to denote the Brid or Object which one 
proposes in any action; As — To fight for the public good'' 
[i. e. Cause the public good; or, The public good being the 
Cause of fighting.] 

most perfect and meritorious comedy, without exception, of any on our 
stage. 

^ [The Brackets here and in the following 11 pages, do not, as else- 
where, denote new matter. — Ed.] 



202 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

" 2. It serves to mark the Motive, tlie Cause, the Suhject of 
any action; As — He does all things for the love of virtue," [i. e. 
The love of virtue being the Cause.'] 

^^3. It is used to mark the use for which a thing is done ; 
As — Chelsey Hospital was huilt for disabled soldiers,'' [i. e. 
Disabled soldiers being the Cause of its being built.] 

^^ 4. It is used likewise to denote Profit, Advantage, Interest ; 
As — I write YO^i/our satisfaction,'' [i. e. Your satisfaction being 
the Cause of my writing.] 

^'5. It is used to denote for what a thing is Proper, or not; 
As — It is a good remedy/ for the Fever." In which last example 
to cure is to be understood, [i. e. Curing the Fever being the 
Cause that it is called a good remedy.] 

• " 6. This preposition is used to denote Agreement or Help ; As 
— The Soldier fights for the King." [i. e. The King being the 
Cause of his fighting.] 

"7. It is used to denote the Convenience or Inconvenience of a 
thing; As — He is big enough for his age." [i. e. His age being 
the Cause that he is big enough ; or that his size answers our 
expectation.] 

^^8. It is used to denote Exchange or Trucking, Becompence, 
Betribution or Bequital and Payment ; As — He rewarded him for 
his good services, [i. e. His good services being the Cause of 
reward.] 

^^ Hither we may likewise refer these phrases, Eye for 
Eye" &c. [i. e. An eye (destroyed by malicious violence) 
being the Cause of an eye taken from the convict in punish- 
ment.] 

'^ 9. It is used to denote Instead of, In the Place of; As — 
/ will grind for him." [i. e. He being the Cause of my 
grinding.] 

" Sometimes it serves to denote a MistaJce ; As — He speaks one 
word FOR another." [i. e. Another word being the Cause of his 
speaking that word which he speaks.] 

^' 10. It is used to denote the Distribution of things by Pro- 
p)ortion to several others ; As — He sets down twelve Acres for 
every man." [i. e. Every or each man being the Cause of his 
setting down twelve acres.] 

"11. It denotes the Condition of Persons, Things and 
Times ; As — He was a learned man for those times." [i. e. 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 203 

The darkness or ignorance of those times being the Cause why 
he may be considered as a learned man.] 

"12. It is likewise used to denote In the quality of; As — 
He suborned him for a witnessJ" [i. e. For that he might be 
a witness; or, for to be a witness. — That he might be a 
witness; or, to be a witness being the Cause of his suborning 
him.] 

^^It signifies likewise as much as Because of. By reason of; 
As — To punish a man for his crimes" [i. e. His crimes being 
the Cause of punishment.] 

" It signifies As, or To he ; As — He was sent for a pledge," 
[i. e. That he might be a pledge, or to be a pledge being the 
Cause of his being sent.] 

"During; to denote the Future Time; As — He was chosen 
[to some office] for life" [i. e. To continue in that office 
FOR life; or, for the continuance of his life — The con- 
tinuance of his life being the Cause of the continuance of his 
office.] 

" Concerning, About ; As — As for me" [The sentence here 
is not complete ; but it shall be explained amongst Johnson^s 
instances.] 

" Notwithstanding ; As, after having spoken of the faults of a 
man, we add, for all that, he is an honest man" [i. e. Though 
all that has been said may be the Cause of thinking otherwise, 
yet he is an honest man.] 

S. Johnson says, " For, Preposition : 

"\. Because of — That which we for our unworthiness [i.*e. 
our unworthiness the Cause] are afraid to crave, our jf?r«^^r 
is, that God for the worthiness of his Son [i.e. the worthi- 
ness of his Son being the Cause] would notwithstanding vouch- 
safe to grant" 

" 2. With respect to, with regard to ; As — 

" Lo, some are vellom^ and the rest as good 
FOR all Ms lordship knows, hut they are wood" 

[i. e. As far as all that his lordship knows is the Cause of their 
being denominated good or bad, the rest are as good.] 

"3. In this sense it has often As before it ; As — As for 
Maramaldus the general, they had no just cause to mislihe him, 
being an old captahi of great experience" [i. e. As far as 



I 



204 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

Maramaldus the general might be a Cause of their discontent, 
they had no just cause to mislike him.] 
" 4. In the character of ; As — 

" Say, is it fitting in this very field. 
This field, where from my youth Fve been a carter, 
I in this field should die for « deserter ? " 

[i. e. Being a Deserter, being the Cause of my dying.] 

"5. With resemblance of ; As, — 

^'Forward hefiew, and pitching on his head. 
He quiver' d with his feet, and lay for dead" 

[i. e. As if Death, or his being dead, had been the Cause of his 
laying ; or. He lay in that manner ^ in which death or being dead 
is the Cause that persons so lay.] 

^^ 6. Considered as ; in the place of ; As — 

" Read all the Prefaces of Dry den : 
. FOR those our critics much confide in : 
Though merely torit at first for^ 
To raise the volume's price a 

[i. e. Read, &c. the Cause why you should read them, being, 
that our critics confide in them. Though to fill up and to 
raise the volume's price was the Cause that they were at first 
written.] 

" 7. In advantage of; For the sake of; As — 

" Shall I think the world was made for one, 
And men are born for kings, as beasts for men ? " 

[i. e. Shall I think that one man was the Cause why the world 
was made ; that kings are the Catcse why men were born ; as 
men are the Cau^se why there are beasts?] 

'^8. Conducive to ; Beneficial to ; As — It is for the general 
good of human society, and consequently of particular persons, 
to he true and just : and it is for men's health to he temperate.^' 
[i. e. The general good, &c. is the Cause why it \sfit or a duti/ to 
be true and just : and men's health is the Cause why it is fit or 
a duty to be temperate. 

"9. IFith intention of going to a certain place ; As — We sailed 
directly for Genoa.'' [i. e. Genoa, or that we might go to Genoa, 
being the Cause of our sailing.] 

"10. Ill comparative respect; As — for Tasks with Indian 
elephants he strove.^' [i. e. He contended for a superiority 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 205 

over the elephants ; Tusks^ or the claim of a superiority in point 
of Tusks, being the Cause of the striding or contention.] 

"11. In proportion to; As — As he could see clear, roR 
those times, through superstition, so he would he Minded, noiv and 
then, hy human policy, " [i. e. The darkness, or ignorance, or 
bigotry of those times being the Cause, why even such sight, as 
he then had, may be called or reckoned clear.] 

"12. With appropriation to ; As — Shadow will serve for 
summer. Prick him : for we have a numher of Shadows to 
fill up the Muster-hooJc'^ [i, e. Summer is the Cause why 
Shadow will serve, i. e. will do ; or will be proper to be taken. 
Prick him: the Cause (why I will have him pricked, or set 
down) is, that we have many Shadows to fill up the Muster - 
book.] 

'^13. After O, an expression of Desire ; As — 

" ! FOR a Muse of fire, that would ascend 
The brightest heaven of i?, 



[i. e. O ! I wish for a Muse of fire, &c. i. e. A Muse of fire 
being the Cause of my wishing.] 

'^ 14. In account of ; In solution of ; As — Thus much for the 
beginning and progress of the deluge.^' [i.e. The beginning and 
progress of the deluge is the Cause of thus much, or of that 
which I have written.] K.B. An obsolete and aukward method 
of signifying to the reader, that the subject mentioned shall not 
be the Cause of writing any more. It is a favourite phrase with 
Mr. Harris, repeated perpetually with a disgusting and pedantic 
affectation, in imitation of the Greek philosophers ; but has 
certainly passed upon some persons, as " elegance of method, as 
Beauty, Taste, and Fine Writing.^'' 

'^15. Inducing to as a motive ; As — There is a natural ^ 
immutable, and eternal reason for that which we call virtue; 
and against that which we call vice.'' [Or, That which we 
call virtue, we call virtue for a natural, eternal, and immu- 
table reason, i. e. a natural, eternal, and immutable reason 
being the Catise of our so calling it. — Or, There is a natural, 
eternal, and immutable reason the Cause of that which we call 
virtue.] 

'^16. In expectation of; As — He must he bach again by 
one and tioenty, to marry and propagate : the father cannot 



206 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

stay any longer for the portion, nor the mother for a new set 
of halies to play with'' [i. e. The Portion being the Cause 
why the father cannot stay any longer : a new set of babies 
to play with being the Cause why the mother cannot stay 
longer.] 

"\7, Noting Power or Possibility ', As — for' cj holy per^ 
son to he humble; for one, whom all men esteem a saint, tQ 
fear lest himself become a devil, is as hard as for a prince to 
submit himself to be guided by Tutors'' [i. e. To be humble is 
hard or difficult Because, or, the Cause being, he is a holy 
person : To fear lest himself become a devil is difficult Because, 
or, the Cause being, he is one whom all men esteem a saint: 
To submit himself to be guided by Tutors is difficult Because, 
or, the Cause being, he is a Prince, And all these things are 
equally difficult.] 

'' 18. Noting Dependence ; As — The colours of outward 
objects, brought into a darkened room, depend for their visi- 
hility upon the dimness of the light they are beheld by'' [i. e. 
Depend upon the dimness of the light as the Cause of their 
visibility.] 

'^19. In prevention of, for fear of; As — 

" Corn being had down^ any way ye allow. 
Should wither as needeth for burning in Mow.^* 

[i. e. Burning in Mow, the Cause why it needeth to wither.] 

" And FOR the time shall not seem tedious 
I HI tell thee what befell me on a day," ^ 

[i. e. The Cause of my telling thee, is, that the time may not 
seem tedious.] 

" 20. In remedy of ; As — Sometimes hot, sometimes cold things 
are good for the tooth-ach." [i. e. Their curing the tooth-ach 
the Cause of their being called good."] 

* So Chaucer, 

" This dronken myller hath ytolde us here 
Howe that begyled was a carpentere 
Perauenture in skome for 1 am one." 

Reue'sp'ol. fol. 15. p. 3. col. 1. 

" For they seemed philosophers, they weren pursued to the dethe and 
slayne." — Boecius, boke 1. fol. 221. p. 1. col. 1. 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 207 

^'21. In exchange for ; As — Ke made considerable progress in 
the study of the law, before he quitted that profession for this 
of Poetry*' [i. e. The Profession of Poetry, the Cause of his 
quitting the profession of the law.] 

''22. Li the place of Instead of; As — To make him copious 
is to alter his character ; and to translate him line for line is 
impossible/* [i. e. Line Cause of line, or. Each line of the 
original being the Cause of each line of the translation.] 

"23. In supply of to serve in the place of; As — Most of 
our ingenious yoimg men take up some cried-up English poet 
FOR their modelP [i. e. To be their model the Cause of taking 
him.] 

" 24. Through a certain duration ; As — 

" Since Tiir'd for life thy servile Muse must sing 
Successive conquests and a glorious king." 

[i. e. The continuance of your life the Cause of the continuance 
of your hire.] 

"25. In search of in quest of; As — Some of the philo- 
sophers have run so far back for arguments of comfort against 
pain, as to doubt whether there were any such thing/' [i. e. 
Arguments of comfort against pain the Cause of running so far 
back.] 

" 26. According to ; As — Chymists have not been able, for 
aught is vulgarly known, by fire alone to separate true sulphur 
from antimony" [i. e. Any thing which is vulgarly known, 
being the Cause of ability, or of their being supposed to be 
able.] 

" 27. Noting a State of Fitness or Readiness ; As — Nay if 
you be . an Undertaker, I am for you/' [i. e. I am an Un- 
dertaker, an Adversary, a Fighter, &c. for you; or, I will 
undertake you; i. e. You the Cause of my being an Under- 
taker, &c.] 

" 28. In hope of, for the sake of, noting the final Cause ; 
As — Scholars are frugal of their words, and not vnlling to let 
any go for ornament, if they will not serve for use/' [i. e. 
Ornament the Cause ; Use the Cause/\ 

"29. Of tendency to. Towards; As — It were more for 
his honour to raise the siege, than to spend so many good men 
in the winning of it by force/' [i. e. His honour the Cause 



208 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

why it were more expedient, fitting, ^^roper, &c. to raise tlie 
siege.] 

^*' 30. In favour of, on the part of on the side of ; As — It 
becomes me not to draw my pen in the defe^ice of a had cause, 
when I have so often drawn it for a good oneP [i. e. A good 
one being the Cause of drawing it.] 

^^31. Noting Accommodation, or Adaptation; As — Persia 
is commodiously situated for trade both by sea and land." 
[i. e. Trade the Cause of its being said to be commodio2isly 
situated.] 

^' 32. With intention of; As — 

" And by that justice hast removd the Cause 
Of those rude tempests, which, for ra^me sent. 
Too oft alas involved the innocent'^ 

[i. e. Rapine the Cause of their being sent.] 
" 33. Becoming, Belonging to ; As — 

*' It were not for your quiet, nor your good. 
Nor FOR my manhood, honesty and wisdom. 
To let you know my thoughts." 

[i. e. Your quiet is a Cause, your good is a Cause, my manhood, 
my honesty, my wisdom, each is a Cause, why it is not fit or 
proper to let you know my thoughts.] 

'^34. Notwithstanding; As — Probability supposes that a thing 
may or may not be so, for any thing that yet is certainly deter- 
mined on either side." [i. e. Any thing yet determined being 
the Cause of concluding.] 

^^35. For all. Notwithstanding ; As — For all his exact 
plot, down ivas he cast from all his greatness'' [i. e. His exact 
plot being, all of it, a Cause to expect otherwise ; yet he was 
cast down.] 

" 36. To the use of to be used in ; As — 
" The Oak for nothing ill ; 
The Osier good for twigs ; the Poplar for the Mill.'^ 

[i. e. Not any thing the Cause why the oak should be pro- 
nounced bad ; Twigs the Cause why the osier should be called 
good ; the Mill the Cause why the poplar should be esteemed 
useful.] 

^^ 37, In consequence of ; As — 

" For love they force through thickets of the loood'' 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 209 

[i. e. Love the CatiseJ] 
'' 38. In recompense of; As — 

" Now FOE, SO many glorious actions done 
For peace at Jiome, and for the public wealth, 
I mean to crown a bowl to Casar'^s health : 
Besides in gratitude for such high matters^ 
Know I Jiave vow^d two hundred Gladiators.^* 

[i. e. I mean to crown a bowl to Caesar's health, the Ca2ise — 
so many glorious actions; the Cause — peace at home; the 
CatLse — the public weal, besides, I have in gratitude vowed 
two hundred gladiators, such high matters being the Cause of 
my gratitude.] 

" 39. In proportion to ; As — Ke is not very tall, yet for his 
i/ears he 's tall'' [i. e. His years the Cmise why he may be 
esteemed tall.] 

" 40. By means of; by interposition of ; As — Moral considera- 
tions can no way move the sensible appetite, were it not for the 
willJ' [i. e. Were not the will the Cause.'] 

" 4i\, In regard of; in preservatio7i of; As — I cannot for my 
life" [i. e. My life being the Cause; or. To save my life 
being the Cause why I should do it : i. e. though my life were at 
stake.] 

^^ 42. For to ; As — / come for to see you'' [i. e. To see you 
being the Cause of my coming.] 

" A large posterity 

Up to your happy palaces may mounts 
Of blessed saints for to increase the count. ^'^ 
[i. e. To increase the number being the Cause of their mount- 
ing.^] 

For. Conjunction;^ As— • 

^ [Matth. xi. 8. " But what went ye out /or to see ? " Matth. xi. 14. 
*' Elias, which was for to come .'* Acts xvi. 4. " They delivered them 
the decrees for to keep." Acts xvi. 10. " The Lord had called us for to 
preach the gospel." — Ed.] 

* So the French correspondent Conjunction car (by old French authors 
written Quhar) is no other than Qua re, or, Que (i. e. Kat) ea re. 

Qu and c (says Laurenbergius) " communionem habuere apud an- 
tiquos, ut Arquus, oquulus, pro arcus, oculus. Prise. Vicissim anticus, 
eculus, pro antiquus, equulus, antiqui libri. Cum et quum, cui et qui, 
Terentius Andria : Qui mihi expurgandus est, pro cui : annotat Donatus. 
Querquera febris, Lucilius : Quercera, GeUius, lib. 20. Cotidie, non 

p 



210 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

" Heav*n doth with us as we with torches deal. 
Not light them rou themselves : for if our virtues 
Did not go forth of us, H were all alike 
As if we had them notj"* 
[i. e. Themselves not being tlie Cause of lighting them. If our 
virtues did not go forth of us, ^t were all alike as if we had them 
not : That is the Cause why heaven doth deal with us, as we 
deal with torches.] 

" 2. Because ; on this account that ; As — / doubt not but 
great troops would be ready to run ; yet for that the worst men 
are most ready to move, I would wish them chosen by discretion 
of wise men." [i. e. The worst men are the most ready to move. 
That is the Cause why I would wish them (not the worst men, 
but the troops) chosen by discretion of wise men.] 

" 3. For as much. In regard that ; in consideration of ; 
As — For as much as the thirst is intolerable, the patient may 
he indulged the free use of Spaw water." [i. e. As much as the 
thirst is intolerable, is the Cause why the patient may be in- 
dulged.] 

" 4. For why. Because ; For this reason that ; As, — 
Solyman had three hundred field pieces, that a Camel might 
well carry one of them, being taken from the carriage : for 
WHY, Solyman purposing to draw the emperor unto battle, had 
brought no greater pieces of battery with him." [i. e. the 
Cause, that.] 

Quotidie, scribimt Quintil. et Victorinus. Stercilinium, pro sterqiiilinio, 
habent libri veteres Catonis de E. H. et Terentius Phormione : Insece 
et Inseque. Ennius, Livius, Cato : ut disputat Gellius, lib. 18. cap. 19. 
Hujusce, et hujusqiie, promiscue olim scribebant. Hinc Fortuna hujusce 
d^iex, apud Pliiiium, lib. 34. Qi Fortuna hujusque diet, apud Ciceronem, 
lib. 2. de legibus. Et Victor de regionibus urbis : vicus. hujusque. 
DiEi. FORT. iED. Lex vctus sedificii : dies operis k. novemb. primeis 
DIES peqvVn. pars dimidia dabitur vbi pr^dia satis subsig- 

NATA ERUNT. ALTERA PARS DIMIDIA SOLVETUR OPERE PERFECTO 
PROBATO QUE." 

Of which innumerable other instances might also be given. And the 
Latins, in cutting off the e at the end of Que, only followed the example 
of the Greeks, who did the same by Kat (as should have been mentioned 
before in the note to page 47). Thus in Sappho's ode to Venus, 
Hpe oTTi 6* ■qv to TrenovOa, k otti 

Aevpo KoXoifii. 
K' ottl y f/AO) fxakLCTT eBeXio yivecrBai. 
Ai df fXT) (f)iK€t rax^cos (pikrjcrei 
K* orri KeXevrjs. 



CH. IX.] ' OF PREPOSITIONS. 211 

B. — For, is not yet your own, however hard yon have 
struggled for it : for, besides Greenwood and S. Johnson, you 
have still three others to contend with. Wilkins assigns two 
meanings to for. He says, it denotes — '^ the efficient or final 
cause, and adjuvancy or agreement withJ' 

Lowth asserts that — " for, in its primary sense, is loco alte- 
rius, in the stead or place of another.'' And he therefore cen- 
sures Swift for saying — ^'Accused the ministers for betraying 
the Dutch ; " And Dryden for saying — " You accuse Ovid for 
luxuriancy of verse?' Where, instead of for, he says of should 
be written. 

And Mr. Tyrwhitt, in his Glossary, says — ^^For. Frep. 
Sax. sometimes signifies against.^^ Of which he gives three 
instances. 

" He didde next his white lere 
Of cloth of lake fin and clere ; 
A breche and eke a sherte ; 
And next his shert an haketon, 
And over that an habergeon 
For percing of his herte." 

Mr. Tyrwhitt says, — " Against, or to prevent piercing/' 

" Therfore for stealyng of the rose 
I rede her nat the yate unclose." 

Mr. T. says — '' Against stealing.'^ 

" Some shall sow the sacke 
For sheding of the wheate." 

Mr. T. says— "to prevent shedding." 

H. — As Wilkins has produced no instances, he has given 
me nothing to take hold of. And let any ingenuity try whe- 
ther it can, with any colour of plausibility, apply Dr. LowtVs 
meaning of loco atterius, or any other single meaning (except 
Cause) to the instances I have already explained. His correc- 
tions of Swift and of Dryden are both misplaced. For the 
meaning of these passages is, — 

Betrmiinr/ the Dutch ") _, 

■r . z. r Cause of the accusation. 

Luxuriancy oj verse ) 

So also in Mr. Tyrwhitt's instances, though their construc- 
tion is aukward and faulty, and now out of use, yet is the mean- 
ing of FOR equally conspicuous. The Cause of putting on the 

p 2 



212 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

Habergeon, of the advice not to open tlie gate_, of sowing the 
sack — being respectively — that the heart might not be pierced, 
that the rose might not be stolen, that the wheat might not be 
shed. 

B. — I will trouble you with only one instance of my own. 
How do you account for this sentence — " To the disgrace of 
common sense and common honesty, after a long debate concern- 
{ ing the Rohillas, a new tvrit was moved for for Old Sarum : 
and every orator was tongue-tied. Although it is as much the 
duty of the House of Commons to examine the claim of repre- 
sentation, as of the other House to examine the claim, of peerage J' 
Is the repetition of for tautologous, or only aukward ? 

H. — Only aukward. For here are two Causes mentioned. 
The Cause of the writ, and the Cause of the motion. By a 
small transposition of the words you may remove the aukward- 
ness and perceive the signification of the phrase. — "A motion 
was m,ade for a new writ for Old Sarum.^' [i. e. A new writ 
— Cause of the motion. Old Sarum, or a vacancy at Old Sarum 
— Cause of the writ.] And you will perceive that for may be 
repeated in a sentence as often as you mean to indicate a Cause ; 
and never else. As, '' A motion was made for an order for a 
ivrit FOR the election of a burgess for to serve in parliament for 
the borough of Old Sarum,'' 

1. An order — Cause of the motion. 

2. A writ — Cause of the order. 

3. Election of a burgess — Cause of the writl 

4. To serve in Parliament — Cause of the election. 

5. Borough of Old Sarum — Cause of the service in Parlia- 
ment. 

So in these lines of Butler, 

" The Devil 's master of that office 
Where it must pass, if 't be a drum ; 
He '11 sign it with Cler. Pari. Bom. Com. 
To him apply yourselves, and he 
Will soon dispatch you for his fee." 

i. e. his fee the Cause. 

B. — But if the words for and of differ so widely as you say ; 
if the one means Cause and the other means Consequence ; by what 
etymological legerdemain will you be able to account for that 
indifferent use of them which you justified in the instances of 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 213 

" Sickness of hunger ; and Sic/mess for Imnger." 
" Sickness OF love ; and Sickness for love." 

H. — Qualified as it is by you^ it is fortunate for me that I 
shall not need to resort to Etymology for the explanation. 
Between the respective terms 

'^ Sickness Hunger j 

Sickness ■- Love/^ 

it is certainly indifferent to the signification which of the two 
prepositions you may please to insert between them ; whether 
OF or FOR : this being the only difference^ — that if you insert 
OF_, it is put in apposition to Sickness ; and Sickness is an- 
nounced the Consequence: — if you insert for^ it is put in 
apposition to Hunger or to Love; and Hunger or Love is 
announced the Cause} 

B. — I do not well understand how you employ the term 
Apposition. Scaliger^ under the head Appositio, (Cap. clxxvii. 
de caussis) says — " Caussa propter quam duo substantiva non 
ponuntur sine copula, e philosophia petenda est. Si aliqua 
substantia ejusmodi est, ut ex ea et alia, unum intelligi queat ; 
earum duarum substantiarum totidem notss (id est nomina) in 
oratione sine conjunctione coheerere poterunt.^^ 

H. — What Scaliger says is very true. And this is the case 
with all those prepositions (as they are called) which are really 
substantives. Each of these — ejusmodi est, ut ex ea et alia 
(to which it is prefixed j postfixedj or by any manner attached) 
unum intelligi queat. 

B. — If it be as you say, it may not perhaps be so impos- 
sible as Lord Monboddo imagines, to make a Grammar even 
for the most barbarous languages : and the Savages may pos- 
sibly have as complete a syntax as ourselves. Have you con- 



^ The Dutch" are supposed to use Van in two meanings ; because it sup- 
plies indifferently the places both of our of and from. Notwithstanding 
which Van has always one and the same single meaning, viz. Beginning. 
And its use both for of and from is to be explained by its diflercnt op- 
position. When it supplies the place of from, Van is put in apposition 
to the same term to which from is put in apposition. But when it 
supplies the place of of, it is not put in apposition to the same term to 
which of is put in apposition, but to its correlative. And between two 
correlative terms, it is totally indiiferent to the meaning which of the 
two correlations is expressed. 



214 OF PREPOSITIONS. [pART I« 

sidered what he says upon that subject, vol. 1. book 3. of his 
Origin and Progress of Language ? 

H. — I could sooner believe with Lord Monboddo, that 
there are men with tails like cats_, as long as his lordship 
pleases;^ and conclude with him_, from the authority of his 

^ " The last thing I proposed to consider was, the expression of the 
relation or connexion of things, and of the words expressing them : 
which makes what we call Syntax, and is the principal part of the 
grammatical art." 

" Now let ever so many words be thrown together of the most clear 
and determinate meaning, yet if they are not some way connected, 
they will never make discourse, nor form so much as a single proposi- 
tion. This connexion of the parts of speech in languages of art is 
either by separate w^rds, such as prepositions and conjunctions, or by 
cases, genders, and numbers, in nouns, &c. But in less perfect lan- 
guages the most of them are denoted by separate words. 

" Now as every kind of relation is a ^ure idea of intellect, which never 
can be apprehended by sense, and as some of those relations, particularly 
such of them as are expressed by cases, are very abstract and metaphy- 
sical, it is not to be expected that savages should have any separate 
and distinct idea of those relations. They will therefore not express 
them by separate words, or by the- variation of the same word, but will 
throw them into the lump with the things themselves. This will make 
their syntax wretchedly imperfect. — There are only three barbarous 
languages, so far as I know, of which we have any particular account 
published that can be depended upon, — the Huron, the Galibi, and the 
Caribbee ; of which we have Dictionaries and Grammars also, so far as 
it is possible to make a Grammar of them. With respect to syntax, the 
Hurons appear to have none at all : for they have not prepositions or 
conjunctions. They have no genders, numbers, or cases, for their 
nouns ; nor moods for their verbs. In short, they have not, so far as 
I can discover, any way of connecting together the words of their dis- 
course. Those savages therefore, though they have invented words, use 
them as our children do when they begin to speak, without connecting 
them together : from which we may infer, that Sjnitax, which com- 
pletes the work of language, comes last in the order of invention, and 
perhaps is the most difficult part of language. It would seem, however, 
that persons may make themselves understood without^ syntax. And 
there can be no doubt but that the position of the word will conunonly 
determine what other word in the sentence it is connected with." 

^ As his Lordship (vol. 1. p. 238) seems to wish for further authori- 
ties for human tails, especially of any tolerable length, I can help him 
to a tail of a foot long, if that will be of any service. 

"Avant que d'avoir vu cette ile, j'avois souvent oiiy dire qu'il y 
avoit des hommes a longues queues comme les betes ; mais je n'avois 
jamais pu le croire, et je pensois la chose si eloignee de notre nature, 
que j'y eus encore de la peine, lorsque mes sens m'oterent tout lieu 
d'en douter par ime avanture assez bizarre. Les habitans de Formosa 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 215 

famished friend, that human flesh (even to those who are not 
famished) is the sweetest of all viands to the human taste, than 

etant accoutumez a nous voir, nous en usions ensemble avec assez de 
confiance pour ne rien craindre de part ni d'autre ; ainsi quoy qu'etrangers 
nous nous croyons en seurete, et marchions souvent sans escorte, lorsque 
I'experience nous fit connoitre que c'etoit trop nous hazarder. Un jour 
quelques uns de nos gens se promenant ensemble, un de nos ministres, 
qui etoit de la compagnie, s'en eloigna d'un jet de pierre pour quelques 
besoins naturels ; les autres cependant marchoient toujours fort attentifs 
a un recit qu'on leur faisoit ; quand il fut fini ils se souvinrent que le 
ministre ne revenoit point, ils I'attendii'ent quelque temps ; apres quoy, 
las d'attendre, ils allerent vers le lieu ou ils crurent qu'il devoit etre : lis 
le trouverent, mais sans vie, et le triste etat oil il etoit fit bien connoitre 
qu'il n'avoit pas langui long-temps. Pendant que les uns le gardoient, les 
autres allerent de divers cotez pour decouvrir le meurtrier : ils n'allerent 
pas loin sans trouver un homme, qui se voyant serre par les notres, ecumoit, 
hurloit, et faisoit comprendre qu'il feroit repentir le premier qui I'appro- 
cheroit. Ses manieres desespere'es firent d'abord quelqu'impression ; mais 
enfin la frayeur ceda, on prit ce misera])le qui avoiia qu'il avoit tue le 
ministre, mais on ne put sgavoir pourquoy. Comme le crime etoit atroce, 
et que Timpunite pouvoit avoir de facheuses suites, on le condamna a etre 
hrule. II fut attache a un poteau ou il demeura quelques heures avant 
I'execution ; ce fut alors que je vis ce que jusques-la je n'avois pu croire ; 
sa queue etoit longue de plus d'un pied toute couverte d'un poll roux, et 
fort semblable a celle d'un bceuf. Quand il vit que les spectateurs etoient 
surpiis de voir en lui ce qu'ils n'avoient point, il leur dit que ce defaut, 
si e'en etoit un, venoit du climat, puisque tons ceux de la partie meri- 
dionale de cette ile dont il etoit, en avoient comme lui." — Voyages de 
Jean Struys, An. 1650. torn. 1. chap. 10. 

The ■ meek, modest, sincere,* disinterested, and amiable Doctor 
Horsley, Loed bishop of Eochester, could have furnished the otJier 
Lord with an authority for Tails nearer home, in his own metropolitan 
city : — " Ex hujus modi vocibus, fuerunt improbi nonnulli, quibus visa 
est occulta voluntas regis esse, ut Thomas e medio toUeretur ; qui prop- 
terea velut hostis regis habitus, jam tum coepit sic vulgo negligi, contemni 
ac in odio esse, ut cum venisset aliquando Strodum, qui vicus situs est ad 
Medveiam flumen, quod flumen Kocestriam alluit, ejus loci accolse cupidi 
bonum patrem ita despectum ignominia aliqua afficiendi, non dubitarint 
amputare caudam equi quem ille equitaret ; seipsos perpetuo probro ob- 
ligantes : nam postea, nutu dei, ita accidit, ut omnes ex eo hominum 
genere, qui id facinus fecissent, nati sint instar brutorum animalium 
caudati." — As this change of shape may afford a good additional rea- 
son why such fellows should have " nothing to do with the laws, but 
to obey them," the bishop perhaps will advise to sink what Polydore 
kindly adds in conclusion, — " Sed ea infamifc nota jam pridcm, una 

* [Mr. Baron Maseres used to relate, that he had often known the 
bishop to make a jest of doctrines which he strenuously defended in his 
writings. — Ed.] 



216 OF PREPOSITIONS. [pART I. 

admit that " every kind of relation is a pure idea of intellect, 
which never can be apprehended by sense ; and that those par- 
ticularly which are expressed by cases are more abstract and 
metaphysical than the others/' 

But his lordship and his fautors will do well to contend 
stoutly and obstinately for their doctrine of language,, for they 
are menaced with a greater danger than they will at first ap- 
prehend : for if they give up their doctrine of language^ they will 
not be able to make even a battle for their Metaphysics: the 
very term Metaphysic being nonsense ; and all the systems of it, 
and controversies concerning it, that are or have been in the 
world, being founded on the grossest ignorance of words and 
of the nature of speech. 

As far as relates to Prepositions and Conjunctions j on which 
(he says) Syntax depends, the principal and most difficult part 
(as he calls it) of the Grammatical art, and which (according 

cum gente ilia eorum hominum qui peccarint, deleta est." — Folyd. Virg, 
Urb. Ancjl. Hist. fol. 218. 

" But who considers right will find indeed, 

'T is Holy Island parts us, not the Tweed. 

Nothing but Clergy could us two seclude ; 

No Scotch was ever like a Bishop's feud. 

All Litanys in this have wanted faith. 

There *s no — Deliver us from a BisJiop's wrath. 

Never shall Calvin pardon'd be for sales ; 

Never for Burnet's sake, the Lauderdales ; 

For Becket's sake Kent always shall have tales." 

TJie Loyal Scot. By A. Marvell. 
" lohan Capgrave and Alexander of Esseby sayth, that for castynge 
of fyshe tayles at thys Augustyne, Dorsett Shyre menne hadde tayles 
ever after. But Polydorus applieth it unto Kentish men at Stroud by 
Rochester, for cuttinge of Thomas Becket's horses tail. Thus hath 
England in all other land a perpetuall infamy of tayles by theyr wiytten 
legendes of lyes, yet can they not well tell, where to bestowe them 
truely."— p. 37. 

And again, p. 98. — "The spirituall sodomites in the legendes of their 
sanctified sorcerers have diffamed the English posterity with tails, as I 
have shewed afore. That an Englyshman now cannot travayle in an 
other land, by way of marchandyse or any other honest occupyinge, but 
it is most contumeliously thrown in his tethe, that al Enghshmen have 
tailes. That uncomly note and report have the nation gotten, without 
recover, by these laisy and idle lubbers the Monkes and the Priestes, 
which could find no matters to advance their canonised gains by, or their 
saintes as they call them, but manifest lies and knaveries." — loJiau Bale. 
Actes of English Votaries. 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 217 

to him) is the last in order of invention, and completes the work 
of language : As far as relates to these prepositions and con- 
junctions_, I hope it is by this time pretty e\ident that_, instead 
of invention, ihQ classes of them spring from corruption; and 
that, in this respect_, the lavage languages are upon an equal 
footing with the languages (as they are called) of art, except that 
the former are less corrupted : and that Savages have not only 
as separate and distinct ideas of those relations as we have_, but 
that they have this advantage over us (an advantage in point 
of intelligibility, though it is a disadvantage in point of brevity), 
that they also express them separately and distinctly. For 
our Prepositions and Conjunctions, like the language of the 
Savages, are merely — " so many words of the most clear and 
determinate meaning thrown together,^^ or, (as he afterwards 
strangely expresses it) *' thrown into the lump with the things 
themselves.^' ^ 

^ What Lord Monboddo has delivered concerning Syntax, lie has 
taken, in his own clumsy way, from the following erroneous article of 
M. de Brosses. — 147. Fahrique des Syntaxes barbares. — "Dans son 
origine, elle n'a d'abord eu qu'iin amas confus de signes epars appliques 
selon le besoin aux objets a mesure qu'on les d^couvroit. Peu a peu la 
necessite de faire connoitre les circonstances des idees jointes aux circon- 
stances des objets, et de les rendre dans I'ordre ou ] 'esprit les place, a, par 
une logique naturelle, commence de fixer la veritable signification des 
mots, leur liaison, leur regime, leurs derivations. Par I'usage recu et 
invetere, les tournures habituelles sont devenues les preceptes de I'art 
bons ou mauvais, c'est a dire bien ou mal faits selon le plus ou le moins 
de logique qui y a preside : et comme les peuples barbares n'en ont 
gueres, aussi leurs langues sont elles souvent pauvres et mal construites : 
mais a mesure que le peuple se police, on voit mieux I'abus des usages, 
et la syntaxe s'epure par de meilleures habitudes qui deviennent de 
nouveaiix preceptes. Je n'en dis pas davantage sur I'etabHssemeut 
des syntaxes ; et meme si j'y reviens dans la suite, ce ne sera qu'en peu 
de mots. Cest une matiere immense dans ses details, qui demanderoit 
un livre entier pour la suivre dans toutes les operations mechaniques 
du concept, qui en general la rendent nccessaire en consequence de la 
fabrique du sens interieur, mais trcs arbitraire dans ses petits details, 
par le nombre infini de routes longues ou courtes, droites ou tortues, 
bonnes ou mauvaises, que Ton pent prendre pour parvenir au nicme 
but. Au surplus toutes ces routes bien ou mal faites servent (^galemeut 
dans I'usage lorsqu'elles sont une fois frayees et connues." This matiere 
immense, as M. de Brosses imagines it, is in truth a very small and 
simple business. The whole of cultivated languages, as well as of those 
we call barbarous, is merely " im amas de s'ujues epars appliques selon la 
besoin aux objets.' ' 



218 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

B. — Wellj Sir, after this tedious investigation of for, (one 
half of which I think might have been sparedj let us now, if 
you please, pause for a moment, and consider the ground which 
we have beaten. The Prepositions if, unless, but, without, 
SINCE, you had before explained amongst the Conjunctions. 
To these you have now added the prepositions with, sans, 
through, from, to, while, till, of, and for. Though we 
have spent much time, we have made but little progress, com- 
pared with what stiU rem'ains to be done : at least if our 
language is as fertile in prepositions as Buffier supposes the 
French to be. 

H. — I rather think we have made great progress. And, if 
you have nothing to object to my derivations and explanations, 
I must consider the battle as already won. For I am not here 
writing a dictionary {which yet ought to be done, and of a very 
different kind indeed from any thing ever yet attempted any 
where) J but only laying a foundation for a new theory of lan- 
guage. However, though the remaining prepositions are nume- 
rous, the greater part require but little, and many of them no 
explanation. 

By. 

By (in the Anglo-Saxon written Bi, Be, B15) is the Impe- 
rative ^ By^ of the Anglo-Saxon verb Beon, to be. And our. 
ancestors wrote it indifferently either be or by. ^' Damville 
BE right ought to have the leading of the army, but, BYcause 
thei be cosen germans to the Admirall, thei be mistrusted.^^ 
1568. See Lodge' Illustrations, vol. 2. p. 9. This preposition 
is frequently, but not always, used with an abbreviation of 
construction. Subauditur, instrument , cause, agent, &c. Whence 
the meaning of the omitted word has often been improperly 
attributed to by. With (when it is the imperative of 



^ [By^ is the third person singular of the optative, present and future ; 
Elstob and Eawlinson give it as the Imperative, but not Ilask. It would 
seem to be an objection to Mr. Tooke's opinion, that hi or be is also a 
common prefix to verbs. 

" })ar Brutus bi-feng 
Al j}at him bi-foren wes." — Layam. v. 329. — Ed.] 



CH. tX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 219 

pyji^an) is used indiflPerently for By ^ (when it is the imperative 
of Beon, and with the same subauditur and imputed meaning : 
As — ^^ He was slain by a sword, or^ he was slain with a sword '^ 
— '^ Kenwalcus was warreyd with the King of Britons" Wallis^ 
confounding together the imperative of pyyi^an with the impe- 
rative of ^I<I>A^^ says — "With indicat instrumentum, ut 
Latinorum ablativus instrumenti ; atque etiam concomitantiam, 
ut Latinorum cumP 

By was also formerly used (and not improperly nor with a 
different meaning) where we now employ other prepositions,, 
such as For J In, During , Through, As ; — 

" Aboute the xviii yere of the reygne of Ine dyed the holy by shop 
Aldelme. Of him it is written, that when he was styred by his gostly 
enymy to the synne of the flesh, he to do the more torment to himselfe 
and of hys body, wolde holde within his bedde by hj'^m a fayre maydeu 
BY so long a tyme as he myght say over the hole santer." Fabian, 

LXXVI. 

" The which by a longe time dwelled in warre." XLv. 

" To whom the fader had by hys lyfe commjited him." LXXii. 

" He made Clement by his lyfe helper and successonr." ly. 

"WTiom Pepyn by his lyfe hadde ordeyned ruler of Gnian." 

LXXXIII. 

" Sleynge the people without mercy by all the wayes that they 
passyd." lxxviii. 

So also OF was formerly used^ and with propriety^ where we 
now employ by with equal propriety. 

" These quenes were as two goddesses 
Of arte magike sorceresses. 

^ In compound prepositions also, the Anglo-Saxon uses indiflferently 
either pi^ or Be ; as, 

pi^-aeptan Be-ffij:tan 

pi^-pojian Be-pojian 

pi^-geonban Be-geonban 

pi^-innan Be-innan 

pi^-neo^an Be-neo^an 

pi^-upan Be-upan 

pi^-nran Be-uran 

pi^-hinban Be-hinban 

though the modem English has given the preference to Be: having 
retained only two of the above prepositions commencing with piS, and 
dropped only two commencing with Be. 



320 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I, 

Thei couthe muche, he coutlie more : 
Thei shape and cast ayeiist hym sore, 
And wrought many a subtile wile. 
But yet thei might hym not begyle. 
Such crafte thei had aboue kynde. 
But that arte couth thei not fynde. 
Or whiche Ulisses was deceived.'* 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 135. p. 1. col. 2. 

Between. Betwixt.^ 

Between (formerly written Twene, Atwene, Bytwene) is a 
dual preposition, to whicli the Greek, Latin, Italian, French, 
&c. have no word correspondent; and is almost peculiar to 
ourselves, as some languages have a peculiar dual number. It 
is the Anglo-Saxon Imperative Be, and Tpejen or twain. 

Betwixt (by Chaucer written Bytwyt^) is the imperative 
Be, and the Gothic T^%f^Sj or two : and was written in 
the Anglo-Saxon Betpeohs, Betpeox, Betpux, Betpyx, and 
Betpyxfc. 

Before, Behind, Below, Beside, Besides. 

These Prepositions are merely the imperative be, compounded 
with the nouns • fore, hind, low, side, which remaining 
still in constant and common use in the language; as — The 
fore part J the liind part, a low place, the side, — require no 
explanation.' 

Beneath. 

Beneath means the same as Below, It is the imperative 
Be compounded with the noun, Neath. Which word Neath 
(for any other use but this of the preposition) having slipped 
away from our language, would perhaps have given some 
trouble, had not the nouns, Nether and Nethermost (corrupted 
from NeoSemej't, Ni^emsept), still continued in common 

■^ Grimm's Grammat. iii. 269. 

* " Thy wife and thou mote hange fer atwynne, 

Por that Bytwyt you shall be no synne." — Miller* % Tale. 

" [These and the like are what Grimm classes as substantive-prepo- 
sitions, as being compounded with nouns ; the prefix, however, being 
itself a preposition, and not, as Mr. Tooke supposes, a verb ; this class 
including such words as again, anciently also to-geri (Lay am.), among, 
A.S. on-geniang, &c. See Additional Notes. — Ed.] 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 221 

use.* The word Nether is indeed at present fallen into great 
contempt^ and is rarely used but in ridicule and with scorn : 
and this may possibly have arisen from its former application 
to the house of commons^ anciently called (by Henry VIII.) 
" The NETHER house of parliament.'' ^ That the word should 
thus have fallen into disgrace is nothing wonderful : for in 
truth this Nether end of our parliament has for a long time past 
been a mere sham and mockery of representation, but is now 
become an impudent and barefaced usurpation of the rights of 
the people. 

Neath, Neo'San, Neo'Se, (in the Dutch Neden, in the 
Danish Ned, in the German Niedere, and in the Swedish Nedre 
and Neder) is undoubtedly as much a substantive, and has the 
same meaning as the word nadir ; which Skinner (and after 
him S. Johnson) says, we have from the Arabians. This ety- 
mology (as the word is now applied only to astronomy) I do not 
dispute ; but the word is much more antient in the northern 
languages, than the introduction of that science amongst them. 
And therefore it was that the whole serpentine class was 
denominated NJ\.<^K in the Gothic, and Nebpe in the Anglo- 
Saxon. 

If we say in the English, — " From the top to the bottom," — 
the nouns are instantly acknowledged : and surely they are to 
the full as evident in the collateral Dutch, " Van boven tot 
beneden. — beneden stadj" &c. 

Under. 

Under (in the Dutch Onder), which seems by the sound 

* " yet higher than their tops 

The verd'rous wall of paradise up sprung : 
Which to our general Sire gave prospect large 
Into his nether empire neighb'ring round." 

Par. Lost J book 4. ver. 445. 

" among these the seat of men, 

Earth with her nether ocean circumfus'd 
Their pleasant dwelling place." — Ibid, book 7. v. 624. 
" In yonder nether world where shall I seek 
His bright appearances, or foot-step trace ? " 

Ibid, book 11. v. 328. 

^ " Which doctrine also the lordes bothe spirituall and temporall, with 

the nether house of our parliament, have both sene, and lyke very wel." 

— A Necessary Doctrine and Ej'jidition for any Chris teti Man. Set fur the 

hy the Kynyes maiestie of Mnylande. 1543. 



222 OP PREPOSITIONS. [part I. 

to have very little connexion with the word Beneath^ is yet in 
fact almost the same, and may very well supply its place ; ^ for 
it is nothing but On neder, and is a Noun. 
" Nor engine, nor device polemic, 

Disease, nor Doctor epidemic, 

Though stor'd with deletory med'cines 

(Which whosoever took is dead since) 

E'er sent so vast a colony 

To both the under worlds, as He." — Hudib. can. 2. v. 320. 

Beyond. 
Beyond (in the Anglo-Saxon pi^jeonban, Bijeonb, Bejeonb) 
means be passed. It is the imperative Be, compounded with 
the past participle 5eonb_, jeoneb, or 5oneb_, of the verb Dan, 
Danjan, or Eronjan, to go, or to pass. So that — " Beyond ctny 
place,'' means — Be passed that place, or, Be that place passed. 

Ward. 
Ward, in the Anglo-Saxon papb or peapb, is the imperative 
of the verb papbian or peapbian, to look at ; or to direct the 
view. It is the same word as the French garder : ^ and so 
Chaucer uses it, where it is not called a preposition. 

*' Take rewarde of [i. e. Pay regard to, or Look again at] thyn owne 
valewe, that thou ne be to foule to thy selfe." — Parson's Tale, fol. 101. 
p. 2. col. 2. 

" And yet of Danger cometh no blame 
In REWARD [i. e. in regard^ of my doughter shame." 

Rom. of the Bose, fol. 135. p. 2. col. 1. 

^ [Unter, onder, in some cases also represents inter ^ both alone and in 
compounds : e. g. Ger. unterhrechen, interrupt ; Dutch, ondermengen, 
intermingle; ^' onder wegJien, inter eundum ; " Kilian, underway; A.S. 
Unbeji ^sem, inter ed ; unbep beojijen, among (?) hills, Layam. 20854. 
— Wachter considers this sense to have been brought in by early trans- 
lators, ^'- ex affectations Latinismi." Haltaus says it is also sometimes 
confounded with Hinder. These show the occasional tendency of lan- 
guage to be confiiient ; and that words which appear alike, or even the 
several senses of the same word (if same it can be called) are not always 
to be traced to one source. To this cause may perhaps be referred the 
relation between the words, undertaJce and entreprendre, understand (ver- 
staen) and intelligere. — Ed.] 

^ " Literarura g et w frequentissima est commutatio," &c. — Wallis's 
Preface. 

" Galli semper G utuntur pro Sax. p. id est, pro w." — Spehnan, Gloss. 
(Garantia). 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 223 

" This shuld a rijt^dse lord haue in his thoujt 

And net be like tirauntes of Lombardy 

That han no eetvaede [i. e. regard'] but at tyranny." 

Legende of good Women^ fol. 206. p. 2. col. 2. 

" Wherfore God him self toke eeward to the thynges, and theron 
suche punyshment let fal." — Testament of Lone, boke 2. fol. 322. p. 2. 
c. 1. 

Our common Englisli word To reward, which usually, by 
the help of other words in the sentence, conveys To recompence. 
To benefit in return for some good action done ; yet sometimes 
means very far from benefit : as thus, — " Reward them after 
their doings " — where it may convey the signification of punish- 
ment ; for which its real import is equally well calculated : 
for it is no other than Regarder, i. e. To look again, i. e. To 
remember, to reconsider ; the natural consequence of which will 
be either benefit or the contrary, according to the action or 
conduct which we review. 

In a figurative or secondary sense only, Garder means to 
protect, to keep, to watch, to ward, or to guard. It is the same in 
Latin : Tutus, guarded, looked after, safe, is the past participle 
of Tueor, Tuitus, Tutus. So Tutor, he who looks after. So we 
say either, — Guard him well, or. Look well after him. In 
dificrent places in England, the same agent is very properly- 
called either a Looker, a Warden, a Warder, an Overseer, a 
Keeper, a Guard, or a Guardian. 

Accordingly this word ward may with equal propriety be 
joined to the name of any person, place, or thing, to or from 
which our view or sight may be directed. 
" He saide, he came from Barbaric 
To Romewarde." Gower, fib. 2. fol. 34. p. 1. col. 1. 

^ Skinner says — " Eeward q. d. Re Aivard (i. e. contra sen vicissim 
assignare, ab A.S. peajib, versus, erga. v. award." And under Award, 
he says — *' Award, a part, initial! otiosa a, et A.S. peajib, versus, erga. 
q. d. erga talem (i. e.) tali addicere, assignare." 

S. Johnson says, " reward [Re and Award] to give in retura. 
Skinner." Which is the more extraordinaiy because under the article 
Award, Johnson says, that it is " derived by Skinner, somewhat improba- 
bly, from peajib Sax. toioards.'' 

I suppose award to be a garder, i. e. a determination h qtd c'est a 
garder the thing in dispute ; i. e. to keep it — not ciistodire, as Spclman 
imagined ; but to Jiave or hold it in possession : for garder in French is 
used both ways, as keep is in English, and in both properly. 



224 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

*' This senatour repayreth with victorye 
To Momewarde.^' 

Chaucer, Man of Lawes Tale, fol. 23. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Kynge Demophon whan he by ship 
To Troieivarde with felauship 

Seyland goth upon his weie." — Gower, lib. 4. fol. 67. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Agamemnon was then in waye 
To Troiioarder—Ibid. lib. 5. fol. 119. p. 1. col. 1. 

" He is gon to Scotlondwa/rde.''^ 

Chaucer, Man of Laic es Tale, fol. 22. p. 1. col. 1, 
" The morow came, and forth rid this marchant 
To Maunder^ward, his prentes brought him auaunt 
Til he came to Bruges." — Shypmans Tale, fol. 70. p. 1. col. 1. 
"His baner he displayed, and forth rode 

To Thebeswarde.'' — Knyghtes Tale, fol, 1. p. 2. col. 1. 
" And certayne he was a good felawe ; 
Ful many a draught of wine had he drawe 
IFrom Burdeuxward, while the chapmen slepe." 

Chaucer, Frol. to Cant. Tales. 
" That eche of you to shorte with others way 
In this viage, shal tel tales tway 
To Canterhiiryioarde I meane it so, 
And Homwardes'^ he shall tel tales other two." Ibid. 

— " and forth goth he 

To shyppe, and as a traytour stale away 

Whyle that this Ariadne a slepe lay, 

And to his countreywarde he sayleth blyue." 

Ariadne, fol. 217. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Ee this the son went to, and we forwrocht 
Left desolate, the wyndis calmit eik : 
We not bekend, quhat rycht coist mycht we seik, 
War warpit to SeywarthY the outwart tyde." 

Douglas, booke 3. p. 87. 
" The mone in till ane wauerand carte of licht 
Held rolling throw the heuynnis middilwaede." 

Ibid, booke 10. p. 322. 
" The Landwart hynes than, bayth man and boy, 
For the soft sessoun ouerflowis ful of ioy." 

Ibid, booke 13. p. 472. 

^ [This genitive termination should lead us rather to consider ward as 
a substantive, than as the imperative of a verb. See Needs, and Add. 
Notes. — Ed.] 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 225 

" Lo Troylus, riglit at the stretes ende 
Came ryding with his tenthe somme yfere 
Al softely, and thyderwarde gan bende 
There as they sate, as was his way to wende 
To Foley swarde.'^ 

Chaucer, Troylu8^ boke 2. fol. 169. p. 2. col. 2. 
*' As she wold haue gon the way forth right 
Towarde the garden, there as she had hight, 
A.nd he was to ihQ Gardenwarde also." 

F)-anJceleyns Tale^ fol, 55. p. 2. col. 1. 
** And than he soiige it wel and boldely 
Fro worde to worde according to the note, 
Twise a day it passeth through his throte 
To Scolewardej and Homwarde when he went." 

Prioresses Tale^ fol. 71. p. 2. col. 1. 
" To K^-warde bare he right great hate." 

Romaunt of the Rose, fol. 138. p. 1. col. 1. 
" He hath suche heuynesse, and suche wrathe to uswarde, bycause of 
our offence." — Tale of Chaucer, fol. 82. p. 1. col. 1. 
*' But one thing I wolde wel ye wist 
That neuer for no worldes good 
Myne hert unto hirwarde stood, 
But onely right for pure loue." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 97. p. 2. col. 2. 
" But be he squier, be he knight 
Whiche to my Ladyewarde pursueth, 
The more he leseth of that he seweth, 
The more me thinketh that I wynne." 

Ibid. Ub. 2. fol. 28. p. 2. col. 2. 
" Wheras the Poo, out of a wel small 
Taketh his first spring and his sours 
That Estwarde euer' increseth in his cours 
To Emelleward, to Ferare, and to Venyse." 

Chaucer, Clerke of Oxenf. Tale, fol. 45. p. 1. col. 2. 
*' If we turned al our care to Godward, we shiild not be destitute of 
such things as necessarili this presente lyfe nedeth." — Tho. Lupset, Of 
diynge well, p. 203. . 

*' It is hard for a man in a welthy state to kepe his mind in a due 
order to Godward.'' — Ibid. p. 205. 

" The which is witli nothing more hurled and hyndered in his way to 
Gracewarde than with the brckinge of louc and charitic." — Lupset, Ex- 
hortacion to yonge Men. 

So we may bid the hearer look at or regard cither the End 

Q 



226 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

or Beginning of any action or motion or time. Hence the com- 
pound Prepositions toward and fromward, and Adverbs of this 
termination without number : in all of which, ward is always 
the imperative of the verb, and always retains one single mean- 
ing ; viz. Regard J Look at. See, Direct your view. 

Minshew, Junius, and Skinner, though they are very clear 
that WARD and garder are, on all other occasions, the same 
word; (and so in Warden and Guardian, &c.) yet concur 
that ward the Affia; or postpositive preposition, is the Latin 
Versus : Skinner, with some degree however of doubt, saying 
— "A.S. autem Peapb, si a Lat. Vertere deflecterem, quid 
sceleris esset ? '' — Surely none. It would only be an error to 
be corrected. 

The French preposition Vers, from the- Italian Verso, from 
the Latin Versus (which in those languages supply the place of 
the English ward, as Adversus also does of To-ward) do all 
indeed derive from the Latin verb Vertere, to turn ; of which 
those prepositions are the past participle, and mean turned. 
And when it is considered that in order to direct our view to 
any place named, we must turn to it ; it will not seem extraor- 
dinary, that the same purpose should in different languages be 
indifferently obtained by words of such different meanings, as to 
look at, or, to turn to. 

Athwart. 

Athwart (i. e. Athweort, or Athweoried), wrested, twisted, 
curved, is the past participle of Dpeopian, To wrest. To twist ; 
flexuosum, sinuosum, curvum reddere; from the Gothic verb 
TIl^^V^QK-A^f' Whence also the Anglo-Saxon Dpeop, 
Dpeoph, the German Zwerch, Zwar, the Dutch Dwars, Zwerven, 
the Danish Tverer, Tvert, Tver, the Swedish Twert, and 
Swarfwa, and the English Thwart, Swerve, and Veer. 

Among, Amongst, Ymell. 
Minshew says — " ex Belg. Gemengt, i. e. mixtus.*^ 
Skinner says — " ab A. S. Lemanj, hoc a verbo Demen- 
5an.-« 

* Junius derives Swerve from the Hebrew. And all our Etymologists 
Vee)' from the French Virer. 

^ In the Dutch Mingen, Mengen, Immengen. German Mengen. Danish 
Mconger. Swedish Menga. 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 227 

Junius says — " Manifeste est ex A. S. Maenjan, Menpan, 
miscere," 

Here all our Etymologists are right in the meaning of the 
word, and therefore concur in their etymology. Mr. Tyrwhitt 
alone seems to have no notion of the word. For he says — '^ / 
suspect the Saxon Iremanj had originally a termination in 
anJ' But Mr. Tyrwhitt must not be reckoned amongst 
Etymologists. 

Emonge/ amonge,^ amonges, amongest/ amongst, among, 
is the past participle Ire-msencjeb, Ere-mencjeb, (or, as 
the Dutch write it, Gemengd, Gemengt •; and the old Eng- 
lish authors, Meynt^^) of the Anglo-Saxon verb Iremsencjan, 
Demencjan, and the Gothic verb P/VMAI^^QA^- Or 
rather, it is the prseterperfect Demanj, Iremonj, Iremunj, 
or Amang, Among, Amung, (of the same verb Maenjan, 
Menjan) used as a participle, without the participial termina- 
tion ob, ab, or eb : and it means purely and singly Mixed ^ 
Mingled, It is usual with the Anglo-Saxons (and they seem 



^ *^ The kynge with all his hole entent 

Then at laste hem axeth this, 

What kynge men tellen that he is 

Emonge the folke touchinge his name, 

Or it be price, or it be blame." 

Gower, lib. 7. fol. 165. p. 1. col. 2. 
^ " And tho she toke hir childe in honde 

And yafe it souke ; and euer amonge- 

She wepte, and otherwhile songe 

To rocke with her childe aslepe." 

Hb. 2. fol. 33. p. 2. col. 1. 

* " I stonde as one amongest all 

Whiche am oute of hir grace /<5^Z^." 

lib. 8. fol. 187. p. 2. col. 1. 

* " Warme milke she put also therto 

With hony meynt, and in suche wise 

She gan to make hir sacrifice." lib. 5. fol. 105. p. 2. col. 1. 

" That men in eueryche myght se 
Bothe great anoye, and eke swetnesse, 
And ioye meynt with byttemesse. 
No we were they easy, no we were they wood." 

Chaucer, Rom. of the Rose^ fol. 130. p. 1. col. 1. 
" For euer of loue the sickenesse 
Is meynt with swete and bitternesse." 

Ibid. fol. 130. p. 2. col. 2. 
Q 2 



228 OF PREPOSITIONS. [pART I. 

to be fond of it) to prefix especially to their past participles K, 
iE;Be,roji, De.^ 

Chaucer uses this participle amonges in a manner which, I 
suppose, must exclude all doubt upon the subject ; and where it 
cannot be called a preposition. 

" Yf thou easiest thy seedes in the feldes, thou shuldest haue iu mynde 
that the yeres bene amonges, otherwhyle plentuous, and otherwhyle 
bareyn." — Seconde BoJce of Boecius, fol. 325. p. 2. col. 2. 

This manner of usiag the prseterperfect as a participle, 
without the participial termination ed or erij is still very com- 
mon in English; and was much more usual formerly.^ In 
the similar verbs. To sink Tre-pencan, To drink Ere-bpencan, 
To stink Ire-ffcencan, To hang J^enjan, To spring 7S*- 
j'ppmjan. To swing Spenjan, To ring Rmjan, To shrink 
3!-pcpmcan, To sting Stmjan, and in very many others, 
the same word is still used by us, both as prseterperfect and 
participle; Sunk, Drunk, Stunk, Hung, Sprung, Swung, 
Rung, Shrunk, Stung, All these were formerly written with 
an o (as Among still continues to be), Sonk, Dronk (or A- 
dronk), Stonk, Hong (or A-hong^), Sprong (or Y-sprong), 
Swong, Rong, Shronk, Stong. But the o having been pro- 
nounced as an u, the literal character has been changed by 
the moderns in conformity with the sound. And though 
Among (by being ranked amongst prepositions, and being un- 
suspected of being a participle like the others) has escaped the 
change, and continues still to be written with an o, it is always 
sounded like an u ; Amung, Amunkst. 

In the Eeve's Tale, Chaucer uses the Preposition ymell 
instead of among, 

^ [Also On, of which A is frequently the representative. So On- 
mang, and On gemang ; Gemange as a substantive meaning a company. 
—Ed.] 

^ Doctor Lowth is of a different opinion. He says — " This abuse 
has been long growing upon us, and is continually making further 
incroachments," &c. But Doctor Lowth was not much acquainted with 
our old English authors, and still less with the Anglo-Saxon. It is not 
an abuse, but coseval with the language, and analogous to the other parts 
of it : but it must needs have been highly disgusting to Doctor Lowth, 
who was excellently conversant with the learned languages, and took them 
for his model. 

^ \An-honge, Weber's Romances, iii. 49 ; an-hongcn, Layamon, 10^0. 
—Ed.] 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 229 

" Herdest thou ever slike a song er now ? 
Lo whilke a complin is ymell hem alle." 

But this will give us no trouble^ but afford a fresh con- 
firmation to our doctrine : for the Danes use Mellem, Imellemj 
and Iblandt, for this preposition Among, from their verbs 
Megler, Meier er, (in the French Mesler or Meier,) and Iblander, 
To miXj To blend; and the Swedes Ibland, from their verb 
Blanda, To blend. 

Ymell means y-medled, i. e. mixed, mingled. A medley is 
still our common word for a miocture. Ymeddled, ymelled, and 
ymell by the omission of the participial termination, than which 
nothing is more common in all our old English writers. 

" He drinketh the bitter with the swete, 

He MEDLETH sorowe with likynge 

And liueth so, as who saieth, diynge." 

Gower, lib. 1. fol. 17. p. 1. col. 2. 
" O mighty lorde, toward my vice 

Thy mercy medle with justice." lib. 1. fol. 24. p. 2. col. 2. 

" But for all that a man maie iinde 

Nowe in this tyme of thilke rage 

Full great disease in mareiage, 

Whan venim medleth with the sugre, 

And mariage is made for lucre." lib. 5. fol. 99. p. 1. col. 1. 

" Thus MEDLETH shc with ioye wo, 

And with her sorowe myrth also." lib. 5. fol. 116. p. 1. col. 1. 
"Whan wordes medlen with the songe, 

It doth plesance well the more." lib. 7. fol. 150. p. 1. col. 2. 
" A kinge whiche hath the charge on honde 

The common people to gouerne 

If that he wil, he maie well lerne 

Is none so good to the plesance 

Of God, as is good gouemance. 

And euery gouernance is due 

To pitee, thus I maie argue, 

That pitee is the foimdemente 

Of euery kynges regimente. 

If it be medleu with Justice, 

Thei two reraeuen all vice, 

And ben of vertue most vailable 

To make a kinges roylme stable." . 

lib. 7. fol. 166. p. 2. col. 1. 



230 OP PREPOSITIONS. [part T. 

" But he wMche hath his lust assised 
With MEDLID loue and tyrannie." 

Gower, lib. 7. fol. 170. p. 2. col. 1. 
" And MEDLETH sorowe with his songe." 

lib. 8. fol. 182. p. 2. col. 2. 
" We haunten no tauemes, ne hobelen abouten, 
Att markets and miracles we medeley us neuer." 

JPierce Plowmans Crede. 

" There is nothyng that sauoureth so wel to a chylde, as the my Ike 

of his nouryce, ne nothyng is to him more abhomynable than the mylke, 

when it is medled with other meate." — Chaucer^ Fersons Tale, fol. 101. 

p. 2. col. 1. 

" His garment was euery dele 
Ypurtrayed and ywrought with floures 
By dyuers medelyng of coloures." 

Mom. of the Hose, fol. 124. p. 1. col. 2. 
" O God (quod she) so worldly selynesse 
Whiche clerkes callen false felicite 
Ymedled is with many a bytternesse 
Eul anguyshous." — Tropins, boke 3. fol. 177. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Some on her churches dwell 
Apparailled porely, proude of porte. 
The seuen sacramentes they done sell, 
In cattel catchyng is her comfort, 
Ofeche matter they wollen mell." 

JPlowmans Tale, fol. 97. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Amang the Grekis mydlit than went we." 

Douglas y booke 2. p. 52. 
" And reky nycht within an litil thraw 
Gan thikkin ouer al the cauerne and ouerblaw. 
And with the mirknes mijdlit sparkis of fire." 

Ibid, booke 8. p. 250. 
" Syne to thare werk in manere of gun powder, 
Thay .MYDLIT and they mixt this fereful souder." 

Ibid, booke 8. p. 257. 
" And stedis thrawand on the ground that weltis, 
Mydlit with men, quhilk geild the goist and sweltis." 

Ibid, booke 11. p. 387. 
" With blyithnes mydlit hauand paneful drede." 

Ibid, booke 11. p. 394. 
" Quhil blude and braiie in haboundance furth schede 
Mydlit with sand under hors fete was trede." 

Ibid, booke 12. p. 421. 



CH. IX.] ^W OF PREPOSITIONS. 231 

" Above all utheris Dares in that stede 
Thame to behald abasit wox gretumly 

Tharwith to mell refusing aluterlie." — Douglas, booke 5. p. 141. 
•' Quhen Tumus all the chiftanis trablit saw, 
And Eneas sare woundit hym withdraw ; 
Than for this hasty hope als hate as fyre 
To MELL in fecht he caucht ardent desyre." 

Il/id. booke 12. p. 420. 
Against. 

Against (in the Anglo-Saxon Onjejen^) is derived by Junius 
from jeonb. 

"Dr. Mer. Casaubonus mirabiliter (says Skinner) deflectit a 
Gr. Kara'' 

Minshew derives it from Karevavrc. 

I can only say that I believe it to be a past participle, derived 
from the same verb (whatever it be, for I know it not) from 
which comes the collateral Dutch verb Jegenen, To meet, 
rencontreVj To oppose, &c. And I am the more confirmed in 
this conjecture, because in the room of this preposition the 
Dutch employ J eg ens from Jegenen : and the Danes Mod and 
Imod, from their verb Moder of the same meaning : and the 
Swedes Emot from their verb Met a of the same meaning. 
The Danish and Swedish verbs from the Gothic MJJTQ/VN > 
whence also our verb, to meetj and the Dutch Moeten^ Gemoeten. 

Amid or Amidst. 
These words (by Chaucer and others written Amiddes) speak 
for themselves. They are merely the Anglo-Saxon On-mibban, 
On-mibbej', in medio : and will the more easily be assented to, 
because the nouns Mid, Middle (i. e. COib-bsel), and Midst, are 
still commonly used in our language. 

Along. 
On long, secundum longitudinem, or On length : 

" And these wordes said, she streyght her On length (i. e. she stretched 
herself along) and rested awhile." — Chaucer^ Test, of Loue, fol. 325. 
p. 1. col. 2. 

The Italians supply its place by Lungo : 

" Cosi Lungo I'araate rive andai." — Petrarch. 

* [A.S. also Ongean and To-jeanef ; Flem. Teghen. — Ed.] 



232 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PAllT I. 

And the French by the obvious noun and article Le Long : 
" Joconde la dessus se remet en cliemin 
Eevant a son malheur tout Ze Long du voyage." — La 'Fontaine. 
So far there is no difficulty. But there w^as another use of 
this vrord formerly ; now to be heard only from children or very 
illiterate persons : 

" King James had a fashion, that he would never admit any to near- 
ness about himself, but such an one as the queen should commend unto 
him, and make some suit on his behalf; that if the queen afterwards, 
being ill treated, should complain of this Dear one, he might make his 
answer — * It is long of yourself, for you were the party that commended 
him to me.' " — ArchUshop Abhofs narrative ; in Rushwortlis Collections^ 
vol. 1. p. 456. 

The Anglo-Saxon used two words for these two purposes, 

^Snblanj, ^nblonj, Onblonj, for the first ; and Irelanj for the 

second : and our most antient English writers observed the same 

distinction, using endlong for the one, and along for the other. 

" She slough them in a sodeine rage 

Endelonge the horde as thei ben set." 

Gower, hb. 2. fol. 31. p. 1. col. 2. 
*' Thys kynge the wether gan beholde, 
And wist well, they moten holde 
Her cours endlonge the marche right." 

lib. 3. fol. 53. p. 1. col. 1. 
" That nigh his house he lette deuise 
Endelonge upon an axell tree 
To sette a tonne in suche degree 
That he it might tourne about." Hb. 3. fol. 54. p. 1. col. 1. 

" And euery thyng in his degree 
Endelonge upon a bourde he laide." 

lib. 5. fol. 100. p. 2. col. 2. 
" His prisoners eke shulden go 
Endlonge the chare on eyther honde." 

lib. 7. fol. 155. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Than see thei stonde on euery side 
Endlonge the shippes horde." lib. 8. fol. 179. p. 1. col. 2. 

" Loke what day that end el on G Brytayne 
Ye remeue all the rockes, stone by stone. 
That they ne let shyppe ne bote to gone, 
Than wol I loue you best of any man." 

Chancer, Frankeleyns Tale, fol. 53. p. 1. col. 2. 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 233 

" This lady rometh by tlie clyffe to play 
With her meyne, endlonge the stronde." 

Hyj^si^hiUy fol. 214. p. 1. col. 2. 
" I sette the point ouer endelonge on the label." 

Astrolahie, fol. 286. p. 2. col. 1. 
" I sette the poynte of F, endelonge on my labell." 

Ibid. fol. 286. p. 2. col. 2. 
" We slyde in fluddes endlang feill coystes fare." 

BouglaSy booke 3. p. 71. 
" Syne eftir endlangis the sey coistis bray 
Up sonkis set and desis did array." booke 3. p. 75. 

*' Endlang the coistis side our nauy rade." booke 3. p. 77. 

" Bot than the women al, for drede and affray, 
Med here and there,- endlang the coist away," 

booke 5. p. 151. 

" In schawls schene endlang the wattir bra." booke 7. p. 236. 

'•^jp^DLANG the styU fludis calme and bene." booke 8. p. 243. 

" Por now thare schippis full thik reddy standis, 
Brayand endlang the coistis of thar landis." booke 8. p. 260. 

" The bront and force of thare army that tyde 
Endlang the wallis set on the left syde." booke 9. p. 293. 

" Endlang the bankis of flude Minionis." booke 10. p. 320. 

" The bankis endlang al the fludis dynnys." booke 11. p. 372. 

" Before him cachand ane grete flicht or cist 

Of foulis, that did hant endlang the coist." booke 12. p. 416. 
" For euer whan I thinke amonge, 

Howe all is on my selfe alonge, 

I sale, foole of all fooles." — Gower, lib. 4. fol. 66. p. 2. col. 1. 

" I wote well ye haue long serued, 

And God wote what ye haue deserued, 

But if it is ALONGE on me, 

Of that ye unauanced be. 

Or els if it be longe on you, 
. The soth shall be preued nowe." lib. 5. fol. 96. p. .1. col. 2. 

" And with hir selfe she toke such strife, 

That she betwene the deth and Kfe 

Swounende lay full ofte amonge : 

And all was this on hym alonge, 

Whiche was to louc unkinde so." lib. 5. fol. 113. p. 1. col. 2, 



334 OF PREPOSITIONS. [pART I. 

" But thus this maiden had wronge 

Whiche was upon the kynge alonge, 

But ageyne hym was none apele." Gower, lib. 7. fol. 173. p. 2..c. 1. 
" Ye wote your selfe, as wel as any wight, 

Howe that your loue al fully graunted is 

To Troylus, the worthyest wyght 

One of the worlde, and therto trouth yplight, 

That but it were on him alonge, ye nolde 

Him neuer falsen, whyle ye lyuen sholde." 

Chaucer, Troylus, booke 3. fol. 176. p. 2. col. 3. 

Once indeed (and only once^ I believe) Gower has confounded 
them^ and has used along for both purposes : 
" I tary forth the night alonge, 
Por it is nought on me alonge 
To slepe, that I soon go." — lib. 4. fol. 78. p. 2. col. 1. 

SInblanj or endlong is manifestly On long; But what is 
Irelanj ^ or along ? 

S. Johnson says it is — " a word now out of use, but truly 
English.^' He has no difficulty with it : according to him it 
is — ^^^lielanj, a fault, Saxbn/^ — But there is no such word 
in Saxon as Delanj, a fault. Nor is that, at any time, the 
meaning of this word long (or along, as I have always heard it 
pronounced). Fault or not Fault, always depends upon the 
other words in the sentence : for instance, 

^^ Thanks to Pitt : it is along of him that we not only keep 
our boroughs, but get peerages into the bargain.^' 

'^ Curses on Pitt : it is along of him that the free constitution 
of this country is destroyed." 

I suppose that Lord Lonsdale, Lord EUiot and the father of 
Lady Bath, would not mean to impute anj fault to the minister 
in the former of these sentences : though the people of Eng- 

* [Mr. Tooke has clearly pointed out the distinction between these 
two senses of Along ; but I suspect that he has missed of the complete 
explanation of the latter, lielang, which, I believe, is not to be referred 
to any root signifying Length j but to an entirely distinct one, whence 
comes our word Belong, and which it is singular that so acute an observer 
as Mr. Tooke should have overlooked. It is pointed out by Wachter 
(v. Langen), of whose invaluable work he does not appear to have availed 
himself. Mr. Eichardson, in his Dictionary, however, has consulted 
Wachter upon this word, but to no purpose, as he makes very light of his 
authority, alleging that lie here " has several unnecessary distinctions ! " 
See Additional Notes.— Ed.] 



CH. IX.] OF "^REPOSITIONS. 235 

land do certainly impute an inexpiable crime and treacKery to 
him in the latter. 

But Johnson took carelessly what he thought he found, with- 
out troubling himself about the fact or the meaning ; and he was 
misled by Skinner : ^ as he was also concerning the verb To 
Long. I mention the verb To Longj because it may possibly 
assist us in "discovering the meaning of the other word. — '^ To 
Long/' says Skinner, "valde desiderare, ut nos dicimus, to 
think the time long till a man ha's a thing. ^^ 

The word long is here lugged in by head and shoulders, 
to give something of an appearance of connexion between the 
verb and the noun. But when we consider that we have, and 
can have, no way of expressing the acts or operations of the 
mind, but by the same words by which we express some cor- 
responding (or supposed corresponding) act or operation of the 
body: when (amongst a multitude of similar instances) we 
consider that we express a moderate desire for any thing, by 
saying that we incline (i. e. Bend ourselves) to it ; will it sur- 
prise us, that we should express an eager desire, by saying 
that we long, i. e. Make long, lengthen, or stretch out ourselves 
after it, or for it ? especially when we observe, that after the 
verb To incline ^e say To or Towards it ; but after the verb To 
Long we must use either the word For or After y in order to con- 
vey our meaning. 

Lenjian in the Anglo-Saxon is To long, i. e. To make 
long, To lengthen^ To stretch out. To produce, Extendere, 
protendere. 

^^ Lanja]? 'Se apuht, 3'bam, up to Dobe." i. e. Longeth you, 
Lengtheneth you, Stretcheth you up to God, 

Lanj or Long is the praeterperfect of Lenjian. The Anglo- 
Saxon and old English writers commonly use the praeterperfect 
as a participle, especially with the addition of the prefixes a or 

'^ Nota secundo," says Hickes, " has praepositiones saepe in 
vicem commutari, praesertim Ire, Be, et "K.^' — May we not 

^ Skinner says — " Long ib A. S. Delanj, causa, culpa, ut diciraus It is 
LONG of him.^^ Which were evidently intended by Skinner to be under- 
stood causa, culpa. 

So Lye says — " Delanj, Long of : Opera, causa, imptdsu, culpa cu- 
jusvis. — uiX. ^e yy ujie lype gclanj, ut Anglice dici solet. It is long of 
thee that we live.'" Here is no Fault. 



236 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

then Conclude that De-lanj or A-long is the past participle of 
Lenjian, and means Produced ? 

Round, Around : 

Whose place is supplied in the Anglo-Saxon by J>peil and 
On-hpeil.^ In the Danish and Swedish by Omkring. In Dutch 
by Om-ring ; and in Latin by Circum, a Gr. Ktpfco^, of which 
circulus is the diminutive. 

Aside, Aboard, Across, Astride, require no expla- 
nation. 

During. 

The French participle Durant ; from the Italian; from the 
Latin. The whole verb Dure was some time used commonly in 
our language. 

*' And al Ms luste, and al his besy cure 
Was for to loue her while his lyfe mai dure." 

Chaucer J Man of Lawes T. fol. 19. p. 1. col. 2. 

" How shuld a fyshe withouten water dure." 

Troylus, boke 4. fol. 186. p. 2. col. 1. 

*' — Elementes that bethe discordable 

Holden a bonde, perpetually duryng. 

That Phebus mote his rosy day forthbring 

And that the mone hath lorship ouer the nightes." 

Ibid, boke 3. fol. 172. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Euer their fame shall dure." 

Testament of Loue ^ boke 2. fol. 315. p. 1. col. 1. 

" This affection, with reason knytte, dureth in eueryche trew herte." 
—Ibid, boke 3. fol. 331. p. 1. col. 1. 

" Desyre hath longe dured some speking to haue." 

Ibid, boke 1. fol. 306. p. 1. col. 2. 

Pending. 
The French participle Pendant; from the Italian; from the 
Latin. 

Opposite. 
The Latin participle Oppositus. 

MOIENING. 

The French participle Moyennant ; from the Italian Me- 
diante; from the Low Latin. 

' [Qu. Jppael, On-hpsel ?— Ed.] 



ch. ix.] op prepositions. 237 

Save. 
The imperative of the verb. This prepositive manner of 
using the imperative of the verb To save, afforded Chaucer's 
Sompnour no bad equivoque against his adversary the Friar ; 

" God save you all, save this cursed Erere." 

OUTCEPT. 

The imperative of a miscoined verb^ whimsically composed of 
Out and caperCj instead of Ex and capere, 

" I 'Id play hun 'gaine a knight, or a good squire, or gentleman of any 
other countie i' the kingdome — outcept Kent : for there they landed all 
Gentlemen." — B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub^ act 1. sc. 3. 

OUTTAKE, OUTTAKEN. 

The- imperative, and the past participle, speak for themselves ; 
and were formerly in very common use. 

" Problemes and tlemaundes eke 
His wisedome was to finde and seke : 
Whereof he wolde in sondrie wise 
Opposen them that weren wise. 
But none of them it might beare 
Upon his worde to yeue answere 
OuTTAKEN one, whiche was a knight." 

Gower, Conf. Am. fol. 25, p. 1. col. 2. 

" And also though a man at ones 
Of all the worlde within his wones 
The treasour might haue euery dele : 
Yet had he but one mans dele 
Towarde hymselfe, so as I thynke. 
Of clothynge, and of meate and drinke. 
For more (outtake vanitee) 
There hath no lorde in his degree." — Ibid. fol. 84. p. 2. col. 2. 

" For in good feith yet had I leuer^ 
Than to coueite in suche aweye. 
To ben for eucr till I deye 
As poorc as Job, and loueles, 
OuTTAKEN one." Ibid. lib. ,5. fol. 97. p. 1. col. 2. 

" There was a clerke one Lucius, 
A courtier, a famous man, 
Of cuery witte somwhat he can. 



238 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

OuTTAKE that hym lacketh riile, 

His owne estate to guyde and rule." 

Gower, Conf. Am. lib. 5. fol. 122. p. 2. col. 2. 
" For as the fisshe, if it be drie. 

Mote in defaute of water die : 

Eight so without aier on Hue 

No man, ne beast, might thriue. 

The whiche is made of flesshe and bone. 

There is not, outtake of all none." 

Ibid. lib. 7. fol. 142. p. 1. col. 2. 
" Whiche euery kynde made die 

That upon middel erthe stoode, 

Outtake Noe, and his bloode." 

Ibid. lib. 7. fol. 144. p. 1. col. 1. 
" All other sterres, as men fynde, 

Ben shinende of her owne kynde : 

Outtake onely the moone light, 

Whiche is not of him selfe bright." 

Ibid. lib. 7. fol. 145. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Till that the great water rage 

Of Noe, whiche was saide the flood, 

The worlde, whiche than in synne stood. 

Hath dreinte, outtake lines eight." 

Ibid. lib. 8. fol. 174. p. 1. col. 1. 
-' And ye my mother, my soueraigne plesance, 

Ouer al thing, outtake Christ on lofte.'* 

Chaucer, Man of Lawes T. fol. 19. p. 2. col. 2. 
" But yron was there none ne stele. 

For all was golde, men myght se, 

Outtake the fethers and the tre." 

Romaunt of the Rose, fol. 124. p. 2. col. 1. 
*' Sir, say den they, we ben at one 

By euen accorde of eueryche one, 

Outtake rychesse al onely.'' Ibid. fol. 147. p. 2. col. 2. 

*' And from the perrel saif, and out of dout 

Was al the navy, outtake four schippis loist." 

Douglas, booke 5. p. 151. 
" And schortly euery thyng that doith repare 

In firth or feild, flude, forest, erth or are, 

Astablit lyggis styl to sleip and restis. 

Be the small birdis syttand on thare nestis, 

Als wele the wyld as the tame bestiall, 

And euery uthir thingis grete and small : 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 239 

OuTTAK the mery nychtyngale Philomene, 
That on the thorne sat syngand fro the splene." 

Douglas, prol. to booke 13. p. 450. 

" And also I resygne all my knyghtly dygnitie, magesty and crowne, 
with all the lordeshyppes, powre and pryuileges to the foresayd kingely 
dygnitie and crown belonging, and al other lordshippes and posses- 
syons to me in any maner of wyse pertaynynge, what nams and con- 
dicion thei be of ; outtake the landes and possessions for me and 
mine obyte purchased and boughte." — FahiaTis Chronicle^ JEtichm'd the 
Second, 

Nigh. Near. Next. 
Nigh, Near is the Anglo-Saxon adjective Nih, Neh, Neah, 
Neahj, vicinus. And Next is the Anglo-Saxon superlative 
Neahjcf fc, Nehf t. 

" Forsoth this pronerbe it is no lye, 
Men say thus alway, the nye slye 
Maketh the ferre loue to be lothe." 

Chaucer, Mylle7's Tale, fol. 13. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Lo an olde pronerbe alleged by manye wyse : Whan bale is greatest, 
than is bote a nye bore." — Test, of Loue, boke 2. fol. 320. p. 2. c. 2. 

Mr. TyrwHtt in his Glossary says well — " Hext, Sax. highest, 
Hegh. Heghest. Hegst, Hext. In the same manner Next is 
formed from Negh.^^ — Bnt he does not well say that — " Next 
generally means the nighest following, but sometimes the nighest 
preceding J^ For it means simply the nighest j and never implies 
either following or preceding. As, "To sit next/^ &c. 

Instead. 

From the Anglo-Saxon On ftebe, In ftebe, i. e. In place. In 
the Latin it is Vice and Loco, In the Italian In luogo. In the 
Spanish En lugar. And in French Au lieu. In the Dutch it is 
either In stede or In plaats. In the German On statt. In the 
Danish Istceden. And in the Swedish (as we either Home stead 
or Home stall) it is Istaellet. 

Our oldest English writers more rarely used the French word 
Place, but most commonly the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon word 
ST)VA.S, Sceb, Stebe. The instances are so abundantly 
numerous that it may seem unnecessary to give auy. 



240 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART T. 

" But take this lore into thy wit, 

That all thyng hath tyme and stede : 

The churche serueth for the bede, 

The chambre is of an other speche." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 124. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Geffray, thou wottest wel this, 

That euery kyndely thynge that is 

Hath a kyndely stede there he 

May best in it conserued be." 

Chaucer, Fame, boke 2. fol. 295. p. 2. col. 2. 
"Purth of that stede Xwent." Douglas, boke 2. p. 59. 

"But ge, unhappy men, fle fra this stede." Ibid, boke 3. p. 89. 

The substantive stead is by no means obsolete, as S. Johnson 
calls it ; nothing being more common and familiar than — " You 
shall go in their stead/' It is likewise not very uncommon in 
composition ; as Homestead, Bedstead, Roadstead,^ Girdlestead,^ 
Noonstedj^ Steadfast_, Steady, &c. 

^ We often meet with the word Roadstead in Voyages, and I suppose 
it is still a common term with all seafaring men. — " On Thursday 
Captain Fauchey arrived at Plymouth. The purport of his dispatches, 
we conceive, can only be a representation of the necessity of evacuating 
L'Isle Dieu ; as it produces nothing, has no good Roadsted, and is not 
tenable, if not protected by a fleet." — Morning Chronicle, October 19, 
1795. 

"Extract of a letter from Plymouth. The Anson man of war, of 44 
guns, rode out the storm like a duck, without the least damage, in the 
Sound ; which, though an open Moadstead, has most excellent holding 
ground." — Morning Chronicle, January 27, 1796. 

" In consequence of having received information on Wednesday night 
at eight o'clock, that three large ships of war and a lugger had anchored 
in a small Itoadsted upon the coast, in the neighbourhood of this town." 
— London Gazette Extraordinary, February 27, 1797. 
^ " His nose by mesure wrought ful right, 
Crispe was his heere, and eke ful bryght. 
His shulders of large brede, 
And smalyshe in the GyrdeUtede.'''' 

Chaucer, Rom. of the Rose, fol. 123. p. 2. col. 2. 
" For hete her clothes down she dede. 
Almost to her Gerdylstede 
Than lay she uncovert." 

See Wai'ton's Hist, of Engl. Poetry, 4to. vol. 3. p. xxxv. 
"Divide yourself into two halfs, just by the Girdle-stead; send one 
half with your lady, and keep t' other to yourself." — B. Jonson, Eastward 
Hoe, act 3. 



CH. IX.] OP PREPOSITIONS. 24l 

One easy corruption of this word sted, in composition, has 
mucli puzzled all our etymologists. Becanus thinks that Step 
mother is quasi Stiff mother, from Stief, durus ; and so called 
because she is commonly " dura, s^va, immitis, ri^idaJ' Vossius 
on the contrary thinks she is so called, qvL&si fuiciens mater, as a 
stiff and strong support of the family ; ^^ quia fulcit domum cum 
nova hsereditate.^^ Junius, observing that there is not only 
Stepmother, but also Stepchild, Stepson, Stepdaughter, brother, 
sister, &c. to all of whom this imputation of severity cannot 
surely belong, (neither can they be said fulcire domum cum nova 
hcBreditate,) says Stepmother is so called, quasi orphanorum 
mater : '^ nam Srepan Anglo- Saxonibus, et Stiufan Alamannis 
videntur olim usurpata pro orbare.^^ S. Johnson, neither con- 
tented with any of the foregoing reasoning, nor yet with the 
videntur olim umrpata, determined also to try his hand (and a 
clumsy one God knows it is) at an etymology; but instead of it 
produced a Pun. Stepmother, according to him, is — " a woman 
who has stepped into the place of the true mother.^'' 

But in the Danish collateral language, the compounds remain 
uncorrupted; and there they are, with a clear and unforced 
meaning applicable to all — Stedfader, Stedmoder, Stedbroder, 
Stedsoster, Stedbarn, Stedson, Steddotter. i. e. Vice, Loco, in 
the place of, instead of, a father, a mother, a brother, &c. 

About. 
Spelman. '^Abuttare, occurrere, vergere, scopum appe- 
tere, fineba exerere, terminare. A Gallico abutter, seu abouter; 



^ *' Should all hell's black inhabitants conspire, 
And more unhear'd of mischief to them hire, 
Such as high heav'n were able to affright, 
And on the Noonsted bring a double night." — Drayton s Mooncalf. 

" It was not long ere he perceiv'd the skies 
Settled to rain, and a black cloud arise. 
Whose foggy grossness so oppos'd the light. 
As it would turn the Noonsted into niglit." Ibid, 

" She by her spells could make the moon to stay. 
And from the East she could keep back the day, 
Raise mists and fogs that could eclipse the light, 
And with the Noonsted she could mix the night." Ibid. 

" With all our sister nymphs, that to the Noonsted look." 

Poly-olbion, First Song. 



L 



242 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

hsec eadem significant. — La Bout enim finerrij terminumj vel 
scopum designat : Inde AngL a But pro meta ; et about_, pro 
circa rem vel scopum versare. Vox feodalis, et agri mensoribus 
nostris frequentissima, qui prsediorum fines (quos ipsi capita 
vocant_, Marculfus frontes, Galli bouts) abuttare dicunt in 
adversam terram; cum se illuc adigant aut protendant. 
Latera autem nunquam aiunt abuttare : ^ sed terram proximam 
adjacere.^^— L« Coustume reformee de Normandie, cap. 556. — 
*^ Le Serjeant est tenue faire lecture des lettres^ et obliga- 
tions, et declaration, par Bouts et costes des dites terres 
saisies.^^ 

Junius. '' But, Scopus. G. But. Fortasse desumptum est 
nomen ab illis monticellis, qui in limitibus agrorum ab Agrimen- 
soribus constituebantur, atque ab iis Bodones sive Botones 
nuncupabantur, et ad quos, artem sagittandi excBcentes, tela sua 
veluti ad scopum dirigebant.^^ 

Skinner. ^^ About, ab A. S. ^butan, Ymbutan, Circum, 
illud, quantum ad priorem syllabam, a prsep. Ab, hoc a prsep. 
Ymb, quod a prsep. loquelari, Lat. Am, Gr. A/^0t, ortum 
ducit, utr. secundum posteriorem syllabam ab A.S. Ufce vel 
Utan, Foris, Foras, Extremus, item Extremitas, unde et de- 
fluxit Belg. Buy ten, quod idem sonat; quod enim aliud ambit 
partes ejus exteriores, i. e. extimam superficiem attingit et 
obvolvit.^^ 

" Abutt, a Fr. Aboutir. Vergere, confinem esse, ubi scilicet 
ager unus in, vel versus, alium protenditur, et ei conterminus 
est : hoc a nom. Bout, Extremitas, Terminus : quod satis mani- 
feste a prsep. Lat. Ab, et A. S. Ufce, Foras, Foris, ortum trahit ; 
q. d. quod foras protuberat vel extuberat.^' 

'^ But, a Fr. G. Bout, Extremitas, Finis, Punctum, Aboutir, 
ad finem tendere, accedere, acuminari. But etiam in re nautica 
Ewtremitatem alicujus rei signat, manifesto Franco- Gallicse 
originis.^' 

Menage. ^' Bute — Botto et Botontinus se trouvent en cette 
signification. Faustus et Valerius dans le recueil des au- 
theurs qui ont escrit De limitibus agrorum, p. 312. — ^ In 



^ I hardly venture to say tliat I believe the correct and exact Spelman 
is liere mistaken. 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 243 

limitibus ubi rariores ierminos constituimus, monticellos planta- 
vimus de terra, quos botontinos appellavimus.' ^^ Le juris- 
consulte Paulus livre V. de ces sentences_, titre 22. — " Qui 
terminos effodiunt vel eccarant arboresve terminales evertunt, vel 

qui convellunt bodones, &c.^^ Cujas sur ce lieu : " bodones, 

sic uno exemplari scriptum legimus^ cujus nobis copiam fecit 
Pithseus noster. Bodones sive Botones vicem terminorum 
prsestant. Vox est Mensorunij vel eorum qui de agrorum et 
limitum conditionibus scripserunt.^^ * 

Spelman, Junius^ Skinner and Menage^ all resort to Franco- 
Gall, for their etymology. As for boto and its diminutive 
BOTONTiNUS (wliicli have been quoted), they are evidently the 
translation of a Gothic word common to all the northern na- 
tions : which word, as it still remains in the Anglo-Saxon 
dialect, was by our ancestors written Boba (whence our English 
To BODE and many other words), and means the first outward 
extremity or boundary of any thing. Hence Onboba,^ Onbuta, 

^buta, ABOUT. 

After. 

After (Goth. ^VfrTAKS- ^-S- ^F^ep. Dutch Agter, 
Achter. Danish Efter, Bag, Swedish Efier, Atra, Achter,) is 
used as a noun adjective in Anglo-Saxon, in English, and in 
most of the Northern languages. I suppose it to be no other 
than the comparative of the ^noun aft (A.S. Mpz) : for the 
retention of which latter noun in our language we are probably 
obliged to our seamen. 

Hind, Aft, and Back, have all originally the same meaning. 
In which assertion (although aft had not remained in our 
language) I should think myself well justified by the authority, 

^ So, Vitalis de Limit. "Hi non sunt semper a ferro taxati, et circa 
Botontinos conservantur." Innocent, de Cas. Litter. "AHus fontanas 
sub se habens, super se montem, in trivio tres Botontinos." Auctor de 
Agrim. " Si sint Botontini ten'se ex superis prohibeo te sacramentum 
dare." 

^ [No such word occurs in the Anglo-Saxon dictionaries. For 
Onbura, &c. read On-butan, Abutan. — En.] 

[In the Additional Notes to the last Edition I mentioned that I " couhl 
not imagine where Mr. Tooke had got " the word Onboba : Mr. Richard- 
son, however, in his Dictionary persists in retaining it, without giving 
any authority ; and even analyses it into words which also, so far as 1 
know, have no existence in Anglo-Saxon. See Addit. Notes. — En.] 

r 3 



244 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

or rather tlie sound judgement, of M. de Brosses ; who says well 
— " Quelquefois la signification primitive nous est derobee, faute 
de monuments qui Tindiquent en la langue. Alors cependant 
on la retrouve parfois en la recherchant dans les langues meres 
ou collaterals /^ In the Danish language they express the same 
meaning by/ For og Bag, which we express by Fore and Aft, 
or, Before and Behind. And in the Anglo-Saxon they use 
indifferently Behmban, Beseptan, and Onbsec. 

Down, Adown. 

In the Anglo-Saxon Dun, 7?bun. Minshew and Junius 

derive it from Avv(o, subeo. 

Skinner says, — " Speciose alludit Gr. Avvw.'' 

Lye says, — "Non male referas ad Arm, Doun, profundus/^ 

S. Johnson, in point of etymology and the meaning of words, 

is always himself. 

Adown, the adverb, he says, is '^ from A, and Down ; '^ and 

means — ^^ On the ground.'^ 

Adown, the preposition, means — " Towards the ground.'^ 
But though ADOWN comes from A, and Down, — Down, the 

preposition, he says, comes from 3!buna, Saxon : and means ; 

^' 1st. Along a descent ; and 2dly. Towards the mouth of a 

TiverJ' 

Down, the adverb, he says, means — " On the ground'^ But 

Down, the substantive, he says, is from bun, Saxon, a hill ; but 

is used now as if derived from the adverb : for it means, "1st. 

A large open plain or valley.'' 

And as an instance of its meaning a valley, he immediately 

presents us with Salisbury Plain. 

*' On the Downs as we see, near Wilton the fair, 
A hast'ned hare from greedy greyhound go." 

Arcadia, hy Sir Fh. Sydney. 

He then gives four instances more to shew that it means a 
valley ; in every one of which it means hills or rising grounds. 
To compleat the absurdity, he then says, it means, "2dly. A 
hill, a rising ground; and that, Tliis sense is very rare." 
Although it has this sense in every instance he has given for 
a contrary sense : nor has he given, nor could he give, any 
instance where this substantive has any other sense than 



CH. IX.] OF PREPOSITIONS. 245 

that which he says is so rare. — But this is like all the rest from 
this quarter ; and I repeat it again, the book is a disgrace to the 
country. 

Freret, Falconer, Wachter and De Brosses, have all labo- 
riously and learnedly (but, I think, not happily) considered the 
word Dun. 

From what Camden says of the antient names {Danmonii 
or Dunmonii, and Dobuni) of the inhabitants of Cornwal and 
Gloucestershire, and of the two rivers [Daven or Dan or Dun 
or Don) in Cheshire and in Yorkshire ; it seems as if he sup- 
posed that our English word down came to us from the 
Britons. 

Solinus, he observes, called the Cornish men Dunmonii; 
" which name seems to come from their dwelling there under 
hills. For their habitation all over this country is low and in 
Tallies; which manner of dwelling is called in the British 
tongue Danmunith. In which sense also the province next 
adjoining is at this day named by the Britons Duffneint, that 
is to say. Low vallies/' 

Of the Dobuni he says, — "This their name, I believe, i? 
formed from Diiffen, a British word; because the places where 
they planted themselves, were for the most part low and lying 
under the hills.^^ 

Speaking of the river in Cheshire, he says, — " Then cometh 
this Dan or more truly Daven, to Davenport, commonly called 
Danport.^' 

Of the river in Yorkshire, he says, — "The river Danus, 
commonly called Don or Dune, so termed, as it should seem, 
because it is carried in a channel low and sunk in the ground : 
for so much signifieth Dan in the British language.'^ ^ 



^ " Eegionem illam insederunt antiquitus Britanni, qui Solino Dun- 
monii dicti. Quod nomeu ab habitatione sub moiitibus factum videatur. 
Inferius enim, et convaUibus passim per hanc regionem liabitatur, (^uod 
Danmunith Britannice dicitur : quo etiam sensu proxima proviucia 
Diiffneint, i. e. depressa3 valles, a Britannis hodie vocatur." — P. 133. 
Folio Edit. 1607. 

'^ Dohunos videamus, qui olim, ubi nunc Glocestersliire et Oxfordsliire, 
kabitarunt. Plorum nomen factum a Dnffen Britannica dictione credinius ; 
quod maxima ex parte loca jacentia et depressa sub collibus insidcbant." 
—P. 249. 



246 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

Selden, in his notes on tlie first song of Drayton^s Poly- 
olbion^ gives full assent to ^Camden's etymology. He says^ — 
" Dujfneintj i. e. low valleys in British_, as judicious Camden 
teaches me/^ 

Milton^ I doubt not on the same authority^ calls the river 
" the gulphy dun/' 

" Kivers arise ; whether thou be the son 
Of utmost Tweed, or Oose, or gulphy Bun" 

And Bishop Gibson concurs with the same; translating, 
without any dissent^ the marginal note, ^' Duffen Britannice 
profundum sive depressum/' in these words, ^^ DuffeUj in British, 
deep or low/' 

How then, against such authorities, shall I, with whatever 
reason fortified, venture to declare, that I am far from thinking 
that the Anglo-Saxons received either the name of these rivers, 
or their word Dun, ^^ibun (which is evidently our word down, 
ADOWN, difierently spelled), in any manner from the British 
language? And as for Duffen (from which, with Camden, I 
think the words proceeded), we have it in our own language, the 
Anglo-Saxon, and with the same meaning of sunk, depressum, 
deep or low» 

If, with Camden, we can suppose the Anglo-Saxon bun to 
have proceeded through the gradations of 

Duven, Duvn, Dun, Don, Down ; 
Daven, Davn, Dan; 

I should think it more natural to derive both the name of 
the rivers^ and the preposition from Dujien,^ the past par- 
ticiple of the Anglo-Saxon verb Dujzian, mergere. To sink, To 
plunge, To dive, To dip. And the usual prefix to the Anglo- 
Saxon participles, ?C, in ^bun, strongly favours the suppo- 



*' Ban vel Baven e montibus &c. fertur ad &c. Deinde Davenport 
vulgo Banport accedit." — P. 461. 

*' Banus, vulgo Bon et B^me^ ita, ut videtur, nominatus, quod pressiori 
et inferiori in solum labitur alveo ; id enim Ban Britannis significat." 
—P. 562. 

^ I suppose the river Bove in Staffordshire to have its denomination 
from the same word, and for the same reason. 

^ Tlie Anglo-Saxons use indiftcrently for the past participle of Dujzian 



Dufen > 



OH. IX.} OF PREPOSITIONS. 247 

sition.^ In most of the passages too in which the preposition 
or adverb down is used in English_, the sense of this participle 
is clearly expressed ; and, without the least straining or twisting, 
the acknowledged participle may be put instead of the supposed 
preposition : although there may perhaps be some passages in 
which the preposition down is used^ where the meaning of the 
participle may not so plainly appear. 

Upon. Up. Over. Bove. Above. 

These prepositions have all one common origin and significa- 
tion. Upon. Ujian. Upa. 

In the Anglo-Saxon Upa. Upepa. Upemsej't. are the nouns, 
alius, aliiorj altissimus. 

Upon, Upan, Upa. Altus (Fr. Th. Uph.) upon, up. 

Upepa, Opepe, Opep, Altior. over or upper. 

Upemsepfc. Altissimus. upmost, uppermost, upperest, 

OVEREST. 

Be-bupan or Bupan. bove. 

On-bupan. above. 

The use of these words in English as adjectives is very 

either Dupeb, or Diipen or Dopen. I suppose this same verb to have 
been variously pronounced, 

Dopian") ^Dopen. Boven. Bovn. Doim. down. don. 

Dupian > Hence < Dupen. Duven. Diwn. dun. dune. 

DapianJ (^Dapen. Damn. Davn. dan. 

Dypian ") ( 

or V \ To Dwe. 

Dypan ) ( 

^ [See Lamh. ten Kate, Anleiding ^c. v. Dtdken, ducken, sese demit- 
tere, vol. 2. p. 171; and v. Buiv, do/en, yedofen, mergere, ib. p. 625. 
Ten Kate considers these as cognate roots. 

But Mr. Eichardson (Illustrations of E)ig. Philology) obseiTes that Mr. 
Tooke does not seem confident in this etymology : and I shall take the 
liberty to suggest that down, adown, is a contraction of Op-bune, q^or 
from hill, downhill, proclivis. See Lye v. " Op-bune. Deorsum." — Also, 
under the words Dun, mons, and Op, Lye refers to A, S. authorities for 
the expression " op bune. Dowmcard, doton. Deorsum." — See Additional 
Notes. — Ed.] 

[Subsequent investigation has fully confirmed this conjecture ; so that 
there now remains no doubt upon the subject. — Ed.] 



248 OF PREPOSITIONS. [pART I. 

common ; as it is also in all the northern languages : for the 
same words are used in all of them.* 

" Aboiie his hede also there hongetb 

A fruite whiche to that peine longeth : 

And that frnite toueheth euer in one 

His OVER lippe." Goiver, lib. 5. fol. 85. p. 2. col. 2. 

" Her OVER lyp wyped she so clene 

That in her cup was no ferthynge sene." 

Frol. to Cant. Tales. Ptioresse. 
" Ful thredbare was his over eourtpy." Ibid. Clerke of Oxenf. 

" That of his warship recketh he so lyte 
Hys overest sloppe is not worth a myte." 

JProl. to Chan. Feman's Tale. 
" By which degrees men myght climben from the net/tkerest letter to 
the UPPEREST." — Boeeius, boke i. fol. 221. p. 1. col. 1. 

" Why suifreth he suche slyding chaunges, that mystunien suche noble 
thynges as ben we men, that arne a fayre persell of the erth, and holden 
the UPPEREST degree under God of benigne thinges." — Test of Loue, 
fol. 312. p. 1. col. 1. 

It is not necessary for my present purpose, to trace the Par- 
ticles any further than to some Noun or Verb of a determinate 
signification j and therefore I might here stop at the Anglo- 
Saxon noun Upan, altus. But I believe that U}:on, Ufa, upon, 
UP, means the same as Top or Heady and is originally derived 
from the same source. Thus, 

*' — Lowliness is young ambition's ladder, 
Whereto the climber Upwards turns his face ; 
But when he hath attain'd the Topmost round. 
He then unto the ladder turns his back." 

Where you may use indiflPerently either Upward, Topward, or 
Headward ; or Topmost , Upmost , or Headmost. 

Some etymologists have chosen to derive the name of that 
part of our body from the Scythian Ha, altus ; or the Icelandic 
Had, altitudo ; or the Gothic hAHh, altus ; or (with Junius) 



* Germ. Aif. Auher. Danish. Oven. Over. Overste. 
Oben. Ober. Oberste. Ober. 

Dutch. Op. Opper. Opperste. Swedish. Uppe. Ofwer. Ofwerste. 

Boven. Over. Overste. Up. Ofre. Fpperst, 



CH. IX.] 



OF PREPOSITIONS.. 



249 



from the Greek viraro^ ; or Theot. Hon ; or the Anglo- 
Saxon J^eah. But our English words Head and Heaven are 
e^ddently the past participles Heaved and Heaven of the verb 
To Heave: as the Anglo-Saxon )^eapob_, J^eajib^ caput, and 
J>eo}:en_, J>ea):en_, coelum, are the past participles of the verb 
J>eaj:an, J^eopan^, to heave j to lift up. AVhence Upon also 
may easily be derived, and with the same signification. And 
I believe that the names of all abstract relation (as it is 
called) are taken either from the adjectived common names 
of objects, or from the participles of common verbs. The re- 
lations of place are more commonly from the names of some 
parts of our body; such as, Headj Toe, Breast, Side, Back, 
Womb, Skin, &c. 

Wilkins seems to have felt something of this sort, when he 
made his ingenious attempt to explain the local prepositions by 
the help of a man's figure in the following Diagram. But con- 
fining his attention to ideas (in which he was followed by Mr. 
Locke), he overlooked the etymology of words, which are their 
signs, and in which the secret lay. 

" For the clearer explication of these local prepositions 
(says he) I shall refer to this following Diagram. In which 



y34/h 




350 OF PREPOSITIONS. [PART I. 

by tlie oval figures are represented the prepositions deter- 
mined to motion, wherein the acuter part doth point out the 
tendency of* that motion. The squares are intended to signify 
rest or the term of motion. And by the round figures are 
represented such relative prepositions^ as may indifferently refer 
either to motion or rest.^^ 

In all probability the Abbe de PEpee borrowed his method of 
teaching the prepositions to his deaf and dumb scholars from 
this notion of Wilkins. 

''Tout ce que je puis regarder directement en Face, est 
Devant moi : tout ce que je ne peux voir sans retourner la tete 
de Fautre cote, est Derriere moi. 

" S^agissoit-il de faire entendre qu'une action etoit passee ? 
II jettoit au hasard deux ou trois fois sa main du cote de son 
epaule. Enfin s^il desiroit annoncer une action future, il faisoit 
avancer sa main droite directement devant lui.'^ — Des Sourds et 
Muets, 2 edit. p. 54. 

You will not expect me to waste a word on the prepositions 
touching, concerning, regarding, respecting, relating to, saving, 
except, excepting, according to, granting, allowing, considering, 
notwithstanding, neighbouring, &c., nor yet on the compound 
prepositions In-to, Un-to, Un-till, Out-of, Through-out, From-off, 
&c. 

B. — I certainly should not, if you had explained all the 
simple terms of which the latter are compounded. I acknow- 
ledge that the meaning and etymology of some of your preposi- 
tions are sufiiciently plain and satisfactory : and of the others I 
shall not permit myself to entertain a decided opinion till after 
a more mature consideration. Pedetentim progredi, was our old 
favourite motto and caution, when first we began together in 
our early days to consider and converse upon philosophical 
subjects ; and, having no fanciful system of my own to mislead 
me, I am not yet prepared to relinquish it. But there still 
remain five simple prepositions, of which you have not yet taken 
the smallest notice. How do you account for In, Out, On, 
Off, and At ? 

H. — Oh ! As for these, I must fairly answer you with 
Martin Luther, — "Je les defendrois aisement devant le Pape, 
mais je ne s^ais comment les justifier devant le Diable." With 
the common run of Etymologists, I should make no bad figure 
by repeating what others have yaid concerning them ; but I 



CH. X.] OF ADVERBS. 251 

despair of satisfying you with anything they have advanced or 
I can offer, because I cannot altogether satisfy myself. The 
explanation and etymology of these words require a degree 
of knowledge in all the antient northern languages, and a skill 
in the application of that knowledge, which I am very far from 
assuming : and, though I am almost persuaded by some of my 
own conjectures concerning them,^ I am not willing, by an 
apparently forced and far-fetched derivation, to justify your 
imputation of etymological legerdemain. Nor do I think any 
further inquiry necessary to justify my conclusion concerning 
the prepositions ; having, in my opinion, fully intitled myself to 
the application of that axiom of M. de Brosses (Art. 215.) — 
^^ La preuve connue d^un grand nombre de mots d^une espece, 
doit etablir une precepte generale sur les autres mots de memo 
espece, a Forigine desquels on ne pent plus remonter. On doit 
en bonne logique juger des choses que Ton ne pent connoitre, 
par celles de memo espece qui sont bien connues ; en les rame- 
nant a un principe dont Fevidence se fait appercevoir par tout 
ou la vue pent s^etendre.^^ 



CHAPTER X. 

OF ADVERBS. 



B. — The first general division of words (and that which has 
been and still is almost universally held by Grammarians) is 
into Declinable and Indeclinable. All the Indeclinables except 
the Adverbj we have already considered. And though Mr. 
Harris has taken away the Adverb from its old station amongst 
the other Indeclinables, and has, by a singular whim of his 
own, made it a secondary class of Attributives, or (as he calls 
them) Attributes of Attributes ; yet neither does he nor any 
other Grammarian seem to have any clear notion of its nature 
and character. 

* In the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon, 1NN)V, inna, means uterus, vis- 
cera, venter, interior pars corporis. (Inna, mne, is also in a secondary 
sense used for cave, cell, cavern?) And there are some etymological rea- 
sons which make it not improbable that out derives from a word ori- 
ginally meaning shin. I am inclined to believe that in and out come 
originally from two Noims meaning those two parts of the body. 



252 OF ADVERBS. [PART I. 

B. Jonson^ and Wallis and all otliers_, I tliink^ seem to con- 
found it with the Prepositions, Conjunctions^, and Interjections. 
And Servius (to whom learning has great obligations) advances 
something which almost justifies you for calling this class, 
what you lately termed it, the common sink and repository 
of all heterogeneous, unknown corruptions. For, he says, — 
'^ Omnis pars orationis, quando desinit esse quod est, migrat in 
Adverbium.^^ * 

H. — I think I can translate Servius intelligibly — Every 
word, quando desinit esse quod est, when a Granimarian knows 
not what to make of it, migrat in Adverbiunij he calls an 
Adverb. 

These Adverbs however (which are no more a separate part 
of speech than the particles we have already considered) shall 
give us but little trouble, and shall waste no time : for I need 
not repeat the reasoning which I have already used with the 
Conjunctions and Prepositions. 

All Adverbs ending in ly (the most prolific branch of the 
family) are sufficiently understood : the termination (which 
alone causes them to be denominated Adverbs) being only the 
word LIKE corrupted; and the corruption so much the more 
easily and certainly discovered, as the termination remains 
more pure and distinguishable in the other sister languages, 
the German, the Dutch, the Danish, and the Swedish; in 
which it is written lichy lyh, lig, liga. And the Encyclopaedia 
Britannica informs us, that — '^In Scotland the word Like is 
at this day frequently used instead of the English termination 
Ly. As, for a goodly figure, the common people say, a good' 
like figure.^^ 

Adrift 

is the past participle Adrifed, Adrif'dj Adrift, of the Anglo- 
Saxon verb Dpipan, 3!bpij:an, To Drive. 



^ "Prepositions are a peuliar kind of Adverbs, and ought to be 
referred thither." — B. Jotisoji's Grammar. 

" Interjectio posset ad Adverbium reduci ; sed quia majoribus nostris 
placuit illam distinguere, non est cur in ?'e tarn tenui hsereamus." — 
Cai^amuel. 

" Chez est plutot dans notre langue un Adverhe qu'une Particule'^ 
— Be Brasses. 

^ " Kecte dictum est ex omni adjectivo fieri adverbium." — Campanella. 



CH. X.] OF ADVERBS. 253 

" And quliat auenture has tlie hiddir dripfe ? '* 

Douglas^ booke 3. p. 79. 
i. e. Driffed or Driffen, 

Aghast^ Agast, 
may be the past participle Agazed. 

" The French exclaim'd — The Devil was in arms. 
All the whole army stood agazed on him." 

First I^art of Henry VI. act 1. sc. 1. 

Agazed may mean, made to gaze : a verb built on the verb 
To gaze. 
In King Lear (act 2. sc. 1.) Edmund says of Edgar^ 

«' Gasted by the noise I made, 

FuU suddenly he fled." 

Gasted J i. e. made aghast : which is again a verb built on the 
participle aghast. This progressive building of verb upon verb 
is not an uncommon practice in language. 

In Beaumont and Fletcher^s Wit at several Weapons, (act 
2.) '^ Sir Gregory Fopp, a witless lord of land/' says of his 
clown^ 

" If the fellow be not out of his wits, then will I never have any more 
wit whilst I hve \ either the sight of the lady has gasteeed him, or else 
he 's drunk." 

I do not bring this word as an authority^ nor do I think it 
calls for any explanation. It is spoken by a fool of a fool ; and 
may be supposed an ignorantly coined or fantastical cant word ; 
or corruptly used for Gasted. 

An objection may certainly be made to this derivation : 
because the word agast always^ I believe, denotes a consider- 
able degree of terror; which is not denoted by the verb To 
Gaze: for we may gaze with delight, with wonder or admira- 
tion, without the least degree of fear. If I could have found 
written (as I doubt not there was in speech) a Gothic verb 
formed upon the Gothic noun 7VFIS, which means Fear and 
Trembling (the long-sought etymology of our English word 
Ague) ; ^ I should have avoided this objection, and with full 



^ Junius says — " Ague, febris. G. Jigu est aciUus. Nihil nempe 
usitatius est quam acutas dicere febres." 



254 • OF ADVERBS. [PART I. 

assurance have concluded that agast was the past participle of 

AriSAN, i. e. Arised, AriS'A, Arisr, i. e. made 

to shudder^ terrified to the degree of trembling. There is 
indeed the verb Ar*QA^^3 timere ; and the past participle 
Ar*ldS, territus; and it is not without an appearance of 
probability^ that, as Whiles ^ Among eSj &c. have become with 
us Whilst J Amongst, &c. so Ar*ldS might become Agidst, 
Agist_, Agast; or Ar'JcX.S might become Agisd, Agist, 
Agast. And the last seems to me the most probable 
etymology. 

Ago. 

Go, Ago, Ygo, Gon, Agon, Gone, Agone, are all used indis- 
criminately by our old English writers as the past participle of 
the verb To Go} 



But Skinner, a medical man, was aware of objections to this deriva- 
tion, which Junius never dreamed of. He therefore says — " Fortasse a 
Fr. Aigu, acutus. Quia {saltein in jparoxysmo) acutus {quodammodo) 
morbus est, et acutis dolorihus exercet : licet a medicis, durationem magis 
quam vehementiam hujus morbi respicientibus, non inter acutaSj sed 
cJironicas febres numeretur." 

But Skinner's qualifying paroxysmo, quodammodo, acutis doloribus, by 
which (for want of any other etymology) he endeavours to give a colour 
to the derivation from Aigu, acutus, will not answer his purpose : for it 
is not true (and I speak from a tedious experience) that there are any 
acute pains in any period of the ague. Besides, S. Johnson has truly 
observed, that — " The cold fit is, in popular language, more particularly 
called the Ague ; and the hot, the fever." And it is commonly said — 
" He has an Ague and fever." 

I believe our word Ague to be no other than the Gothic word AriS, 
fear, tremhling, shuddering : 

1. Because the Anglo-Saxons and English, in their adoption of the 
Gothic substantives (most of which terminate in s), always drop the 
terminating s. 

3. Because, though the English word is written Ague, the common 
people and the country people always pronounce it Aghy, or Aguy. 

3, Because the distinguishing mark of this complaint is the tremhling 
or shuddering; and from that distinguishing circumstance it would 
naturally take its name. 

4. Because the Erench, from whom the term Aigu is supposed to have 
been borrowed, never called the complaint by that name. 

^ " Questi e un cavaliere Jnglese che ho veduto la scorsa notte alia 
testa di ballo." — Goldoni, La Vedova Scaltra, vol. 5. p. 98. 



CH. X.] OP ADVERBS. 255 

Go. 

" But netlieles the tliynge is Do, 
This fals god was soone go 
With his deceite, and held him close." 

Gower, lib. 6. fol. 138. p. 2. col. 2. 
" The daie is go, the nightes chaunce 
Hath derked all the bright sonne." 

Ibid. lib. 8. fol. 179. p. 1. col. 2. 
" But soth is sayed, go sithen many yeres, 
That feld hath eyen, and wode hath eres." 

Chaucer, KnygMes Tale, fol. 4. p. 1. col. 2. 
" How ofte tyrae may men rede and sene 
The treson, that to women hath Be Bo : 
To what fyne is suche loue, I can not sene, 
Or where becometh it, whan it is go." 

Ibid. Troylus, boke 2. fol. 167. p. 1. col. 2. 

Ago. 

" Of loners now a man maie see 

Ful many, that unkinde bee 

"Whan that thei haue her wille Boy 

Her loue is after soone ago." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 111. p. 2. col. 2. 
" As God him bad, right so he dede 

And thus there lefte in that stede 

With him thre hundred, and no mo. 

The remenant was all ago." — Ibid. lib. 7. fol. 163. p. 2. col. 2. 

" Thus hath Lycui'gus his wiUe : 
And toke his leue, and forth he went. 
But liste nowe well to what entent 
Of rightwisnesse he did so. 
For after that he was ago, 
He shope him neuer to be founde." 

Ibid. lib. 7. fol. 158. p. 2. col. 1. 
" For euer the latter ende of ioye is wo, 
God wotte, worldely ioye is soone ago." 

Chaucer, Nomies Priest, fol. 90. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Tor if it erst was well, tho was it bet 
A thousande folde, this nedeth it not enquere, 
Ago was euery sorowe and euery fere." 

Troylus, boke 3. fol. 181. p. 2. col. 1. 



256 OF ADVERBS. [MRT I. 

" That after whan the storme is al ago 
Yet wol the water quappe a day or two." 

Lucrece, fol. 215. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Pul sykerly ye wene your othes last 
No lenger than the wordes ben ago." 

La Belle Dame, fol. 267. p. 3. col. 2. 
" Trouth somtyme was wont to take auayle 
In euery matere, but al that is ago." 

Assemble of Lady es, fol. 277. p. 1. col. 1. 

Ygo. 

"A clerke there was of Oxenforde also 
That unto Logike had longe Ygo." Prol. to Cant. Tales. 

" To horse is al her lusty folke Ygo." 

Chaucer, Dido, fol. 212. p. 2. col. 2. 

GON. 

'' Thou wost thy selfe, whom that I loue parde 
As I best can, gon sy then longe whyle." 

Troylus, boke 1. fol. 161. p. 1. col. 1. 

Agon. 

" And euermore, whan that hem fell to speke 
Of any thinge of suche a tyme agon." 

Troylus, boke 3. fol. 180. p. 1. col. 1. 
"Thou thy selfe, that haddest habundaunce of rychesse nat longe 
agon." — Boecius, boke 3. fol. 232. p. 2. col. 2. 
*' Ful longe agon I might haue taken hede." 

la, fol. 273. p. 1. col. 1. 



Gone. 

" I was right nowe of tales desolate, 
Nere that a marchant, gone is many a yere, 
Me taught a tale, which ye shuUen here." 

Man of Lawes Tale, fol. 19. p. 1. col. 1. 
" But sothe is said, gone sithen many a day, 
A trewe wight and a thefe thynketh not one." 

Solders Tale, fol. 28. p. 1. col. 2. 

Agone. 
" Of suche ensamples as I finde 
Upon this" point of tyme agone 
I thinke for to tellen one." — Gower, lib. 5. fol. 87. p. 1. col. 1. 



CH. X.] OF ADVERBS. 257 

" But erly whan the sonne shone, 

Men sigh, that thei were agone, 

And come unto the kynge, and tolde, 

There was no worde, but out, alas. 

She was ago, the mother wepte. 

The father as a wood man lepte." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 104. p. 3. col. 3. 
" Whan that the mysty vapoure was agone. 

And clere and fay re was the mornyng." 

Chaucer, Blacke Knyght, fol. 287. p. 1. col. 1. 
" For I loued one, ful longe sythe agone 

With al myn herte, body and ful might." 

Ibid. fol. 289. p. 1. col. 2. 
" And many a serpent of fell kind, 

With wings before and stings behind, 

Subdu'd ; as poets say, long agone. 

Bold Sir George, Saint George did the dragon." 

Hudibras, part 1. col. 2. 
" Wliich is no more than has been done 

By knights for ladies, long agone." Ibid, part 2. col. 1. 

Tillotson, in a Fast sermon on a thanksgiving occasion^ 31st 
January, 1689, says, 

" Twenty years agone." 

Asunder 
is the past participle /Cj'unbpen or Tfj'unbpeS, separated (as 
the particles of sand are), of the verb Sonbpian, Sunbpian, 
Synbpian, 3!funbpian, &c. To separate. 

" In vertue and holy almesedede 
They liueu all, and neuer asonder wende 
Tyll deth departeth hem." 

Chaucer, Scpders Tale, fol. 24. p. 2. col. 1. 
" And tyl a wicked deth him take 
Hym had leuer asondre shake 
And let al his lyrames asondre ryue 
Than leaue his richesse in his lyue." 

Ibid. Bom. of the Base, fol. 145. p. 2. col. 2. 
" These ylke two that bethe in armes lafte 
So lothe to hem asonder gon it were." 

Ibid. Troylus, boke 3. fol. 179. p. 2. col. 2. 
" This yerde was large, and rayled al the aleyes 
And shadowed wel, with blosomy bowes grene 



258 OF ADVERBS. [PART I, 

And benclied newe, and sondeb all the wayes 
In which she walketh." 

Chaucer, TroyluSy boke 3. fol. 167. p. 3. col. 1. 

This word (in all its varieties) is to be found in all the 
northern languages ; and is originally from A. S. Sonb^ i. e. 
Sand. 

Astray 

is the past participle S'j'tpsejeb of tlie Anglo-Saxon verb 
Sfcpsejan, spargere, dispergere_, To Stray, To scatter, 

" This prest was drunke, and goth astrayde." 

Gower, lib. 4. fol. 84. p. 2. col. 1. 
" And ouer this I sigh also 
The noble people of Israel 
Dispers, as shepe upon an hille 
Without a keper unaraied : 
And as they wenten about astraied 
I herde a yoyce unto hem seyne." 

lUdAih. 7. fol. 156. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Achab to the batayle went. 
Where Benedad for all his shelde 
Him slough, so that upon the felde 
His people goth aboute astkaie." 

Ibid. lib. 7. fol. 156. p. 2. col. 2. 

S. Johnson says — To Stray is from the Italian Straviare, 
from the Latin contra viam. But STKAVA^^ Stpeapian^ 
Stjieopian^ Stpepian^ Stpejian, Scjisejian : and Scpap, Stjieop, 
Stjieo^ Stjiea, Scpe, were used in our own mother tongues, 
the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon, long before the existence 
of the word Straviare, and the beginning of the corrupted dia- 
lect of the Latin called Italian, and even of the corrupted 
dialect of the Greek called Latin. And as the words To 
Sunder and Asunder proceed from Sonb, i. e. Sand; so do 
the words To Stray, To Straw, To Straw, To Strew, To 
Straggle, To Stroll, and the well named Strawberry (i. e. 
Straw' d-herry , Stray -berry), all proceed from Strata, or, as 
our peasantry still pronounce it, Strah} And Astray, or 

^ '* Me lyst not of the chaffe ne of the Stree 
Make so longe a tale, as of the corne." 

Chaucer, Man of Lawes Tale, fol. 22. p. 1, col. 1. 



CH, X.] OF ADVERBS. 259 

Astray^ d, means Strawed, scattered and dispersed as the Sti^mo 
is about the fields. 

" Eeaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast 
not strawed." — St. MaWietc, chap. xxv. ver. 34. 

Atwist. 

The past participle De-tpipeb, 'Kt^ij^h, TCcpipb, of the verb 
Tpipan, Tpyf an, IJe-tpyfan, torquere : Tpipan from Tpa, Tpse, 
Tpij Tpy, Tpeo, two. 

Awry. 

The past participle TCppy^eb, ^ppy^b of the verb Ppy^an, 
Ppi-San, To Writhe. 

In the late Chief Justice Mansfield's time, for many years I 
rarely listened to his doctrines in the Court of King's Bench 
without having strong cause to repeat the words of old Gower ; 

" Howe so his mouthe be comely 
His worde sitte euermore awrie." 

Lib. 1. fol. 39. p. 2. col. 2. 

Askew. 

In the Danish, Skicev is wry, crooked, oblique. SkiceveVj To 
twisty To wrest. Skicevt, twisted, wrested. 

" And with that worde all sodenly 
She passeth, as it were askie, 
AU cleane out of the ladies sight.'* 

Gower, lib. 4. fol. 71. p. 1. col. 1. 

Askant. Askance. 
[Probably the participles Aschuinedj Aschuins.'] In Dutch, 
Schuin, wry, oblique. Schuinen, To cut awry. SchuinSj 
sloping, wry, not straight. 

AswooN. 

The past participle 3'j'uanb, TTpuonb of the verb Suanian, 
!S!j'punan, deficere animo. 

" Whan she this herd, aswoune down she falleth 
Tor pitous ioy, and after her swounyny 
She both her yong childi'en to her calleth." 

Clerhe of Oxenfordes Tale, fol. 51. p. 1. col. 1. 

s 2 



360 OF ADVERBS. [PART I, 

" And with that word she fel aswoune anon, 
And after, whan her swounyng was gon 
She riseth up." 

Boctour of I'liisiJces Tale, fol. 65. p. 1. col. 1. 

Astound. 

The past participle Estonne [Estonned] of the French verb 
Estonner (now written E tenner)^ To astonish. 
" And with this worde she fell to groiinde 
Aswoune, and there she laie astounde.*' 

Gower, lib. 4. fol. 83. p. 1. col. 2, 

Enough. 

In Dutch Genoeg, from the verb Genoegen, To content. To 
satisfy. S. Johnson cannot determine wliethei* this word is a 
substantive, an adjective, or an adverb ; but he thinks it is all 
three. 

" It is not easy," lie says, ^^ to determine whether this 
word be an adjective or adverb; perhaps, when it is joined 
with a substantive, it is an adjective, of which Enow is the 
Plural} In other situations it seems an adverb ; except that, 
after the verb To have or To be, either expressed or under- 
stood, it may be accounted a substantive.^^ 

According to him, it means, — '^In a sufficient measure, so 
as may satisfy, so as may suffice. 2. Something sufficient 
in greatness or excellence. 3. Something equal to a man^s 
power or abilities. 4. In a sufficient degree. 5. It notes a 
slight augmentation of the positive degree. 6. Sometimes it 
notes Diminution I 7. An exclamation noting fulness or 
satiety.'^ 

In the Anglo-Saxon it is Irenoj or I/enoli : and appears to be 
the past participle Irenojeb, multiplicatum, manifold, of the 
verb Irenojan, multiplicare. 

Fain. 

The past participle Fsejeneb, Fsejen, Fsejn, 1 tus, of the verb 
Fsejenian, Fsejnian, gaudere, Isetari. 

^ In his Grammar, he says, — " Adjectives in the Enghsh language are 
wholly indeclinable ; Laving neither ciise, gender, nor number ; being 
added to Substantives, in all relations, without any change." 



CH. X.] OF ADVERBS. 261 

"Of that men speken liere and there. 
How that my lady beareth the price, 
How she is faire, how she is wise, 
How she is womanliche of chere : 
Of all this thing whan I male here 
What wonder is though I be faine." 

Goiver, lib. 1. fol. 23. p. 1. col. 2. 
" For "which they were as glad of his commyng 
As foule is FAINE "whan the sonne upryseth." 

CJiatwer, SJiypmans Tale, fol. 69. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Na uthir wyse the pepyl Ausoniane 
Of this glade time in hart wox wounder fane." 

Douglas, boke 13. p. 472. 

Lief. Liever. Lievest. 
Leo}:, Leojijie, Leopej-fc. 

. " I had as lief not be, as live to be in awe 

Of such a thing as 1 myself." — ShaJcesjjeare's Julius Casar. 

No modern author^ I believe, would now venture any of these 
words in a serious passage : and they seem to be cautiously 
shunned and ridiculed in common conversation_, as a vulgarity. 
But they are good English. words_, and more frequently used by 
our old English writers than any other word of a corresponding 
signification. 

Leop (Leopebj or Lupab, or Lujzob or Lup) is the past 
participle of Lujzian, To love ; and always means beloved} 

" And netheles by dales olde. 

Whan that the bokes were leuer, 

Writyng was heloued euer 

Of them that weren vertuous." 

Gower, Prol. fol. 1. p. 1. col. 1. 
" It is a unwise vengeance 

Whiche to none other man is lefe 

And is unto him selfe grefe." — lib. 2. fol. 18. p. 1. col. 2. 

" And she answerd, and bad hym go, 
And saide, howe that a bed all warme 
Hir liefe lay naked in hir arme." — lib. 2. fol. 41. p. 1. col. 2. 



The Pader Almychly of the heuin abuf, 

In the racne tyme, unto luuo his luf, 

Thus spak; and sayd — " — Douglas, bookc 12. p. 111. 



262 OF ADVERBS, [pART I. 

" Thre pointes whiche I fynde 
Een LEUEST unto mans kynde; 
The first of hem it is delite, 
The two ben worship and profite." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 84. p. 2. col. 3. 

" Por euery thyng is wel the leuer 

Whan that a man hath bought it dere." 

lib. 5. fol. 109. p. 3. col. 1. 
" Whan Eome was tbe worldes chiefe, 

The sooth sayer tho was leefe, 

Whiche wolde not the trouth spare, 

But with his worde, playne and bare, 

To themperour his sothes tolde." 

lib. 7. fol. 154. p. 2. col. 2. 
" Of other mens passion 

Take pitee and compassion 

And let no thyng to the be leef 

Whiche to an other man is grefe." — lib. 8. fol. 190. p. 2. col. 1. 
" They lyued in ioye and in felycite 

For eehe of hem had other lefe and dere." 

Chaucer, Monhes Tale, fol. 85. p. 1. col. 2. 

" In the swete season that lefe is." 

Ro7n. of tJie Itose,io\.\'i^. ^.2, col. I. 

** His LEEFE a rosen chapelet 
Had made, and on his heed it set." 

Ibid. fol. 124. p. 1. col. 1. 

" And hym her lefe and dere hert cal." 

Troylus, boke 3. fol. 176. p. 2. col. 2. 

" Had I hym neuer lefe ? By God I wene 
Ye had neuer thyng so lefe (quod she)." 

Ibid, boke 3. fol. 177. p. 1. col. 2. 

" Ye that to me (quod she) ful leuer were 
Than al the good the sunne aboute gothe." 

Ibid, boke 3. fol. 178. p. 2. col. 1. 
" For as to me nys leuer none ne lother." 

Leg. of Good Women, Prol. fol. 205. p. 2. col. 2. 

" Remembrand on the mortall anciant were 
That for the Grekis to hir leif and dere. 
At Troye laug tyme sclie led before that day." 

Douglas, booke 1. p. 13. 



CH. X.] OF ADVERBS. 263 

" Gif euir ony thanke I deseruit toward the 
Or ocht of myne to tlie was leif, quod sche." 

Douglas, booke 4. p. 110. 
" thou nymphe, wourschip of fludis clere, 
That to my saul is hald maist leif and dere." 

Ibid, booke 12. p. 410. 

Adieu. Farewell. 

The former from the French a Dieu, from the Italian Addio : 
the latter the imperative of Fapan^ To go, or To fare. So it is 
equally said in English — How fares it ? or, How goes it ? 

The Dutch and the Swedes also say, Vaarwel, Farwal : The 
Banes Lev-vel, and the Germans Lebet-wohL 

Halt 
means — Hold, Stop, (as when we say — Hold your hand,) Keep 
the present situation, Hold still. 

In German Still halten is To halt or stop ; and Halten is To 
Hold. In Dutch Still houden, To halt or stop j and Houden, 
To hold. 

Menage says well — ^' Far Alto, proprio di quel fermarsi che 
fanno le ordinanze jnilitari: Dal Tedesco Halte, che vale, 
Ferma la ; dimora la ; imperativo del verbo Halten, cioe, arreS' 
tarsi." 

The Italians assuredly took the military term from the 
Germans. 

Our English word halt is the imperative of the Anglo-Saxon 
verb J^ealban, To hold ; and Hold itself is from )^ealban, and 
was formerly written halt. 

" He leyth downe his one eare all plat 

Unto the grounde, and halt it fast." 

Gower, lib. 1. fol. 10. p. 1. col. 2. 
"But so well HALTE no man the plough, 

That he ne balketh othcrwhile."— lib. 2. fol. 50. p. 1. col. 1. 
" For what thing that he male enbrace, 

Of gold, of catell, or of londe. 

He let it neuer out of his honde. 

But gette hym more, and halt it fast." 
" To seie howe suche a man hath good, 

Who so that reasone undcrstoode, , 



864 OF ADVERBS. [pART I. 

It is unproperliclie sayde : 

That good hath hym, and halt him taide." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 83. p. 3. col. 2 ; fol. 84. p. 1. col. 1. 
" — Euery man, that halt him worth a leke, 
Upon his bare knees ought all hys lyfe 
Thanken God, that him hath sent a wyfe." 

Chaucer, Marchauntea Tale, fol. 29. p. 1. col. 1. 
"For euery wight, whiche that to Rome went, 
Halte not pathe, ne alway o manere." 

Trot/lus, boke 1. fol. 168. p. 1. col. 2. 
" Loue, that with an holsome alyaunce 
Halte people ioyned, as hym lyste hem gye." 

Ibid, boke 3. fol. 182. p. 1. col. 1. 

Lo. 

The imperative of Look, So the common people say cor- 
ruptly, — " Lo' you there now '' — '' La' you there.^^ 

Where we now employ sometimes look and sometimes lo, 
with discrimination ; our old English writers used indifferently 
Lo, LoKE, LoKETH, for this imperative. Chaucer, in the 
Pardoner^s Tale, says, 

" — Al the souerayne actes, dare I say, . 

Of victories in the Olde Testament 

Were don in abstynence and in pray ere ; 

Loketh the Byble, and there ye mowe it lere." 
" Loketh ^ Attyla the great conquerour 

Dyed in his slepe, with shame and dishonour." 
" LoKE ^ eke howe to kynge Demetrius 

The king of Parthes, as the boke sayth us, 

Sent him a payre of dyce of golde in scorne." 
" BeJiolde and se that in the first table 

Of hye Gods hestes honourable, 

Howe that the seconde heste of him is this, 

Take not my name in ydelnesse arays. 

Lo, he Rather ^ forbyddeth suche swering 

Than homicide, or any other cursed thing." 

Fol. 66. p. 2. col. 2; fol. 67. p. 1. col. 1. 



^ In both these places a modern writer would say Lo, 
^ Sooner, earlier. — He forbids such swearing Before he forbids homi- 
cide : i. c. in aforegoing part of the table. 



CH. X.J OF ADVERBS. 265 

So B. Jonson. {Alchymist, act 2. sc. 3.) 

" For LOOK, how oft I iterate the work, 
So many times I add unto his virtue." 

Here^ if it had pleased him, he might have said — Lo how 
oft, &c. 
And again 

" SuMle. "V\Tiy, rascall— 
Face. Lo you here, sh." 

Here, if it had pleased him, he might have said — Look you 
here. 

The Dutch correspondent adverb is Siet, from Sien, To look 
or see. The German Siehe, or Sihe, from Sehen, To see. The 
Danish See, from Seer, To look or see. The Swedish Si, or 
Si der, from Se, To look. 

Needs. 

Need-is^ used parenthetically. It was antiently written 
Nedes and Nede is. Certain is was used in the same manner, 
equivalently to certes. 

" And certaine is (quod she) that by gettyng of good, be men mated 
good." 

"I haue graunted that nedes good folke moten ben myghty." — 
Boecius, boke 4. fol. 241. p. 1. col. 1, 3. 

"The consequence is false, nedes the antecedent mote ben of the 
same condicion." — Teat of Loue^ boke 2. fol. 316. p. 1. col. 2. 

" None other thynge signifyeth tliis necessite but onelye thus ; That 
shal be, may nat togider be and not be. Euenlyche also it is sothe, 
loue was, and is, and shal be, nat of necessyte ; and nede is to haue be 
al that was, and nedeful is to be al that is." — Test, of Loiie^ boke 3. 
fol. 328. p. 1. col. 1.^ 



^ jTMi*. Tooke does not seem to have been aware of the fonnation of 
adverbs from the genitive absolute, which prevails in the Teutonic 
languages ; otherwise he would probably have given a different account 
of this word. 

Needs, genitive of Need, of necessity ; as in Straightways, and in 
German Nachts, by night, T/teils, partly, &c. See the account of Once, 
Twice, &c. in the present chapter (page 288); Grimm's Grammat. iii. 
132, (where a large collection of such adverbs will be found) ; Boucher's 
Glossary, v. Anes ; and the Additional Notes. — Ed.] 

^ Necesse — nee esse aliter potest. 



266 OF ADVERBS. [pART I. 

OfteNj -er, -est. 



Prithee. 



I pray thee. 



TowiT, 

thougli it is the infinitive of pit:an_, does not mean To Know, 
as Skinner^ and S. Johnson have supposed; but To Be known , 
Sciendum. Por so (for want of Gerunds, as they are most 
absurdly called) our ancestors used the Active Infinitives, 
as well of other verbs as of pitan.^ Similar adverbs are 

^ [Skinner is not chargeable with any error, as he is speaking merely 
of the obsolete verb wit, and not of the adverbial expression to-wit. 
Mr. Tooke's account of this word is somewhat defective : it is not the 
simple infinitive pitan, which in A. Saxon is never preceded by to, but 
the derivative or future infinitive terminating in nne and always pre- 
ceded by TO, and which in Anglo-Saxon, as well as in Trancic, answers 
to gerunds, supines, and future participles. Nor is it necessarily Passive. 
Somner has " hi'c ly "co pitanne, sciendum est; it is to wit, or to be 
kno^vne:" also ly eac "co pi'canne •f. — Heptateuch. Prafat. JElfr. p. 5. 
ed. TJiwaites. Thus we say. The house is yet to build. Lye gives the 
following instances : eop ly jejf ealb "co pitanne. Yobis datum est 
ad sciendum, Mar. 4. 11. Jja com hir to pirenne; ubi evenit id cognos- 
cendum. Chr. Sax. 165. 26. And adds, " Abhacvoce piran, speciatim 
vero ab Infinitivo derivativo. To pi'canne, phrasis ista, I do you to wit, 
q. d. Ic bo eop r.o piranne, Facio vos scire ; Scire licet ; Yidere licet : 
unde contractiores istae sciibendi formulae tam Anglorum quam Latino- 
inim, To wit ; Scilicet, videlicet." See Additional Note on the Infinitive 
Future. — ^Ed.] 

^ " False fame is not to drede, ne of wyse persons to accepte." — 
Test. ofLoue, boke i. fol. 808. p. 2. col. 2. 

Instances of this use of the Active Infinitives in English are very 
numerous; but the reason of it appears best from old translations. 

" Quod si nee Anaxagorse fugam, nee Socratis venenum, nee Zenonis 
tormenta novisti ; at Oanios, at Senecas, at Soranos scire potuisti. Quos 
nihil aliud in cladem detraxit, nisi quod nostris moribus instituti, studiis 
improborum dissimillimi videbantur. Itaque nihil est quod admirere, 
si in hoc vitse salo circumflantibus agitemur procellis, quibus hoc 
maxime propositum est, pessimis displicere. Quorum quidem tametsi 
est numerosus exercitus, spernendus tamen est." — BoetJdm de Consol. 
hb. 1. prosa 3. 

Thus translated by Chaucer : 

" If thou hast not knowen the exilynge of Anaxagoras, ne the en- 
poysoning of Socrates, ne the turmentes of Zeno; yet mightest thou 
haue knowen the Senecas, the Caiiios, and the Soranos. The whiche 
men nothing els ne brought to the deth, but only for they were en- 
formed of my maners and semeden most unlyke to the studies of 
wicked folke. And forthy thou oughtest not to wondren, though that 



CH. X.] OF ADVERBS. 267 

those of tlie Latin and French, Videlicet^ scilicet, a sgavoir. 
And it is worth noting, that the old Latin authors used the 
abbreviated Videlicet for Videre licet, when not put (as we call 
it) adverbially/ 

Perchance. 
Par-escheant, Par-escheance, the participle of Escheoir, 
Echeoir, Echoir, to fall. 

Percase. 
Per-casum, participle of cadere. Antiently written Parcas, 
Parcaas. 

Peradventure. 
Antiently Peraunter, Paraunter, Inaunter, Inaventure. 

Maybe. Mayhap. 
In Westmoreland they say and write Happen, i. e. may 
happen, 

Habnab. 
Hap ne hap — happen or not happen. 

" Philautus determined hab nab to send his letters." 

EupMes. By John Lillys p. 109. 

Perhaps. Uphap. 
By or through Haps. Upon a Hap, 

" The happes ouer mannes hede 
Ben Longed with a tender threde." 

Gower, lib. 6. fol. 135. p. 2. col. 2. 

" In heuen to bene losed with God hath none ende, but endelesse 
endureth : and thou canste nothynge done aryght, but tliou des}Te the 
rumoure therof be healed and in euery wightes eare ; and that dureth 
but a pricke, in respecte of the other. And so thou sekest rewarde of 



I in the bitter see be driuen with tempestes blowing aboute. In the 
which thj's is my moste purpose, that is to sayne, to displesen wicked 
men. Of whiche shrewes al be the hooste neuer so great, it is to 
DispiSE." — Fol. 222. p. 1. col. 1. 

^ " Pam. YiDELicET parcum ilium fuisse senem, qui dixerit : 

Quoniam ille illi pollicetur, qui eum cibum poposcerit. 
Ant. Videlicet fuisse ilium nequam adolescentem, qui illico, 
Ubi iUc poscit, denegavit se dare granum tritici." 

Plautm. Stichus, act 4. sc. 1. 



268 OF ADVERBS. [PART I. 

folkes smale wordes, and of vayne praysynges. Trewely therein thou 
lesest the guerdon of vertue, and lesest the grettest valonre of con- 
scyence, and uphap thy renome euerlastyng." — Chaucer, Test, of Loue^ 
boke 1. fol. 311. p. 1. col. 1. 

Belike. 

This word is perpetually employed by Sir Philip Sydney, 
Hooker, Shakespeare, B. Jonson, Sir W. Kaleigh, Bacon, 
Milton, &c. But is now only used in low language, instead 
Qi{ perhaps. 

In the Danish language Lyhhe, and in the Swedish Lycica, 
mean Luck, i. e. chance, hazard. Hap, fortune, adventure. 

" Dionysius. He thought belike, if Damon were out of the citie, I 
would not put him to death." — Damon and 'Pythias. By R. Edwards. 

" Brutus and Cassius 

Are rid like madmen through the gates of Eome. 

Ant. Belike they had some notice of the people 
How I had moved them." — Julius Ccesar, act 3. sc. 3. 

" How 's that ? Your 's, if his own ! Is he not my son, except he 
be his own son ? Belike this is some new kind of subscription the 
gallants use." — Every Man in his Humour, act 3. sc. 7. 

" Than she, remembering belike the continual and incessant and con- 
fident speeches and courses that I had held on my lord's side^ became 
utterly alienated from me." — Sir F. Bacon's Apology. 

" Will he, so wise, let loose at once his ire, 
Belike through impotence, or unaware, 
To give his enemies their wish ? " 

JParadise Lost, book 1. v. 156. 

Afoot. 

" Many a freshe knight, and many a blisful route 
On horse and on fote, in al the felde about." 

Chaucer, Annelida, fol. 370. p. 2. col. 1. 

*' Sum gTathis thame on fute to go in feild, 
Sum hie montit on horsbaJc under scheild." 

JDouylas, booke 7. p. 230. 

Of the same kind are the adverbs Foot to foot. Vis a vis. 
Petto a petto. Dirimpetto. The Hand and Foot, being the 
principal organs of action and motion, afford a variet}^ of allu- 
sions and adverbial expressions in all languages; most of 



CH. X.] OF ADVERBS. 269 

which are too evident to require explanation : as when^ of our 
blessed senators,, we say, with equal truth and sorrow, — They 
assume the office of legislation illotis pedibus, and proceed in 
it with dirty hands. 

So FOOT HOT ; which Mr. Warton has strangely mistaken in 
page 192 of his first volume of the History of Eiiglish Poetry ; 
[8vo. edit. vol. ii. p. 25.] 

" The table adoune rihte lie smote. 
In to the floore foote hot." 
Misled by the word foot, Mr. Warton thinks that foote hot 
means ''Stamped" So that he supposes the Soudan here to 
have fallen upon the table both with hands and feet : i. e. first 
he smote it with his fist ; and then he stamped upon it, and 
trampled it under foot. 

But foot hot means immediately , instantaneously, without 
giving time for the foot to cool : so our court of Pie Poudre, 
pied poudre; in which matters are determined before one can 
wipe the dust ofi" one's feet, ^o E vestigio, &c. 
" There was none eie that might kepe 
His heade, whiche Mercuric of smote, 
And forth with all anone fote hote 
He stale the cowe whiche Argus kepte." 

Gower, lib. 4. fol. 81. p! 2. col. 1. 
" And Custaunce han they taken anon fotehot." 

Chaucer, Man of Lawes Tale^ fol^20. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Whan that he herde ianglyng 
He ran anon as he were wode 
To Bialacoil there that he stode, 
Which had leiier in this caas 
Haue ben at Reynes or Amyas, 
For fote hote. in his felonye 
To him thus said Jelousye." 

Ibid. Bom. of the Rose, fol. 138. p. 1. col. 2. 

'' And first Ascaneus, 

As he on hors playit with his feris ioyus, 

Als swyft and feirsly spurris his stede fute hote, 

And but delay socht to the trublit flote." ^ 

Douglas, booke 5. p. 150. 

^ " Primus et Ascanius, cursus ut laitus equestrcs 
Ducebat, sic acer equo turbata petivit 
Castra." Virgil 



270 OP ADVERBS. [part I. 

" I sail declare all and reduce fute hate ^ 
From the beginning of tlie first debate." 

• Douglas, booke 7. p. 205. 

*' Tke self stound amyd the preis fute hote ^ 
Lucagus enteris into his chariote." 

7^2^. booke 10. p. 338. 
" Wyth sic wourdis scho ansiieris him fute hate." ^ 

Ibid, booke 13. p. 443. 
" All with ane voice and hale assent at accorde, 
Desiris the as for thare prince and lord ; 
And ioyus ar that into feild fute hate * 
Under thy wappinis Turnus lyis doun bet." 

Ibid, booke 13. p. 468. 

Aside. 

" Now hand to hand the dynt lichtis with ane swak, 
Now bendis he up his burdoun with ane mynt, 
On syde he bradis for to eschew the dynt." 

Douglas, booke 5. p. 142. 

I suppose it needless to notice sucli adverbs as Aback, 
Abreast, Afront, Ahead, At hand. Beforehand, Behindhand, &c. 

Ablaze. 

" That casten fire and flam aboute 
Both at mouth and at nase 
So tliW; thei setten all on blase." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 102. p. 2. col. 2. 

Aboard. 

" This great shyp on anker rode : 
The lorde cometh forth, and when he sigh 
That other ligge on borde so nighe." 

Gower, lib. 2. fol. 33. p. 2. col. 2. 



^ " Bx-pedi-am : et primae revocabo exordia pugnse." — Virgil, 
Notice Ex-ped-ire. 

^ " Interea." — Virgil. 

^ *' Talibus occurrit dictis." — Ibid. 

* There is no word in the original of Maphseus to explain or justify 
the fute hate of Douglas in this passage : he barely says, 

"Turnumque sub arrais Exultant cecidisse tuis." But the ac^* 

petlvit, expediaMf and occurrit dictis of Virgil are sufiicient. 



CH. X.] OF ADVERBlS. 271 

** What helpeth a man haue mete, 
Where drinke lackethe on the borde." 

Gower, lib. 4. fol. 72. p. 2. col. 1. 
" And howe he loste hys steresman 
Whiche that the sterna, or he toke kepe, 
Smote over the boede as he slepe." 

Chaucer^ Fame, boke 1. fol. 294. p. 1. col. 2. 
" We war from thens affrayit, durst nocht abide, 
Bot fled anon, and within bued has brocht 
That faithful Greik." Douglas, booke 3. p. 90. 

" The bm-geonit treis on bued they bring for aris." 

Ibid, booke 4. p. 113. 
" The stabill aire has calmyt wele the se, 
And south pipand windis fare on hie 
Challancis to pas on boed, and tak the depe." 

Ibid, booke 5. p. 153. 

Abroad. 
" The rose spred to spannishhynge, 
To sene it was a goodly thynge. 
But it ne was so sprede on beede 
That men within myght knowe the sede." 

Chaucer, Rom. of the Rose, fol. 137. p. 1. col. 2. 
" Als fer as his crop hie on beede 
Strekis in the are, as fer his route dois sprede." 

Douglas, booke 4. p. 115. 
" his baner quhite as floure 

In sing of batel did on beede display." 

Ibid, booke 8. p. 240. 
Ad AYS. ^ 
" But this I see on daies nowe." 

Gower, lib. 4. fol. 72. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Thus here I many a man compleine. 
That nowe on daies thou shalte finde 
At nede few frendes kinde." 

Ibid. lib. 5. fol. 110. p. 1. col. 1. 
" But certanly the dasit blude now on davtis 
Waxis dolf and dull throw myne unweildy age." 

Douglas, booke 5. p. 140. 

^ [This and the following, from their termination, should probably be 
referred to the genitive singular, like Needs, &c. See Additional Note. 
—Ed.] 



272 of adverbs. [part i. 

Anights. 

" He mot one of two tliynges chese, 

Where lie woll haue hir suclie on night, 

Gr els upon dales light ; 

For he shall not haue both two." 

Gower,\ih, 1. fol. 17. p. 3. col. 2. 
" For though no man wold it alowe, 

To slepe leuer than to wowe 

Is his maner, and thus on nightes 

When he seeth the lusty knightes 

Beuelen, where these women are 

Awey he sculketh as an hare." 

Ihid. lib. 4. fol. 78. p. 1. col. 1. 
"" For though that wiues ben ful holy thinges, 

They must take in patience A nyght 

Suche maner necessaryes as ben plesinges 

To folke that han wedded hem with ringes, 

And lay a litell her holynesse asyde." 

Chaucer, Man of Laioes Tale, fol. 32. p. 1. col. 1. 
*' Madame, the sentence of this Latyn is, 

Woman is mannes ioye and his blis, 

For when I fele on nyght your soft syde, 

Al be it that I may not on you ryde, 

For that our perche is made so narowe, alas, 

I am full of ioye and solas." 

Ibid, Nonnes Priest, fol. 89. p. 2. col. 2. 

Afire. 

" Turnus seges the Troianis in grete yre. 
And al thare schyppis and nauy set in fyre." 

Douglas, booke 9. p. 274. 
Alive. 
On live, i. e. In Life} 

" For as the fisshe, if it be drie, 
Mote in defaute of water die : 
Eight so without aier, on liue 
No man ne beast might thriue." 

Gotoer, lib. 7. fol. 142. p. 1. col. 2. 



^ In the first book of the Testament of love, fol. 305. p. 1. col. 1, 
Chaucer furnishes another adverb of the same kind, to those who are ad- 
mirers of i\\\B jjart of speecli. — " Wo his hym that is Alouey 



CH. X.] OF ADVERBS. 273 

" For prouder woman is there none on lyue." 

Chaucer, Troylus, boke 2. fol. 143. p. 3. col. 2. 

*' The verray ymage of my Astyauax ging : , 

Sic ene had he, and sic fare handis tua, 
For al the warld sic mouth and face perfay : 
And gif he war on life quhil now in fere, 
He had bene euin eild with the, and hedy pere." 

Douglas, booke 3. p. 84. 
Aloft. 
On Loft, On Luft, On L/yft^ i. e. In the Lmft or Lyft : or^ (the 
superfluous article omitted, as was the antient custom in our 
language, the Anglo-Saxon) In Lyft, In Luft, In Loft. 

" The golde tressed Phebus hygh on lofte." 

Chaucer, Troylus, boke 5. fol. 196. p. 2. col. 1. 

" Bot, lo anone (ane wounder thing to tell) 
Ane huge bleis of flambys brade doun fel, 
Furth of the cluddys at the left hand straucht, 
In manere of an lychtning or fyre flaucht : 
And did alycht richt in the samyn stede, 
Apoun the croun of fare Lauinias hede ; 
And fra thine hie up in the lyft agane 
.It glade away, and tharein did remane." 

Douglas, booke 13. p. 476. 

" With that the dow 

Heich in the lift full glaide he gan behald, 
And with her wingis soraiid mony fald." 

Ibid, booke 5. p. 144. 
In the Anglo-Saxon, Lyjzt is the Air or the Clouds. In St. 
Luke — " in lyjice cummenbe ^' — coming in the clouds. In the 
Danish, Luft is air, and " At spronge i luften '^— ^To blow up 
into the air, or Aloft. In the Swedish also Luft is air. So in 
the Dutch, De loef hehhen, To sail before the wind ; loeven, To 
ply to windward ; loef, the weather gage ; &c. "From the same 
root are our other words, Loft, Lofty, To Luf, Lee, Leeward, 
To Uft, &c. 

Anew. 
" The batteUis war adionit now or new. 
Not in manere of landwart folkis bargane, 
But with scharp scherand wappinnis made melle." 

Douglas, booke 7. p. 22 B, 

T 



274 OF ADVERBS. [PART I. 

" Was it honest ane godly diuine wycht 
With ony mortall straik to wound in ficht ? 
Or git ganand the swerd loist and adew 
To rendir Turnus to his brand or new, 
And strength increscis to thame that vincust be ? " 

Bouglas, booke 12. p. 441. 

Arow. 
" And in the port enterit, lo, we see 
riokkis and herdis of oxin and of fee, 
Fat and tydy, rakand ouer all quJiare, 
And trippis eik of gait but ony kepare, 

In the rank gers pasturing on RAWt" Ibid, booke 3. p. 75. 

" The pepil by him vincust mycht thou knaw, 
Before him passand per ordoui' all on raw." 

Ibid, booke 8. p. 270. 

Asleep.^ 

" Whan that pyte, which longe on slepe doth tary. 
Hath set the iyne of al my heuynesse." 

Chaucer, La belle dame, fol. 269, p. 1. col. 1. 

" Apoun the earth the uthir beistis al, 
Thare besy thochtis ceissing grete and smal, 
Pul sound ON SLEPE did caucht thare rest be kind." 

Douglas, booke 9. p. 283. 

" In these provynces the fayth of Chryste was all quenchyd and in 
SLEPE." — Fabian. 

Awhile. 
A time. Whil-es, i. e. Time^ that or which. Whilst is a 
corruption ; it should be written as formerly. Whiles.^ 

" She died, my lord, but whiles her slander liv'd." 

Much Ado about Nothing. 

Aught, or Ought. 
The Anglo-Saxon J)pifc : a whit, or o whit. N. B. O was for- 
merly written for the article A, or for the numeral one. So 
Naught or Nought : Na whit, or No whit. 

^ [" For David — fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers." Acts, 
13, 36.— Ed.] 

* [This has the genitive form; see Grimm, iii. 134. — Ed.] 



CH, X.] OF ADVERBS. . 275 

Forth. 

" Again e the knight the olde wife gan arise 
And said ; Sir knight, here forth lyeth no way." 

Chaucer, Wife of Bathes Tale, fol. 38. p. 2. col. 3. 

" Alas (quod he) alas, that euer I beheyght 
Of pured gold a thousande pounde of weight 
Unto this phylosopher ! howe shall I do ? 
I se no more but that I am fordo : ^ 
Myn herytage mote I nedes sell. 
And ben a beggar, here may I no lenger dwell." 

'Franheleyns Tale, fol. 55. p. 2. col. 2. 

" Loke out of londe thou be not fore,^ 
And if suche cause thou haue, that the 
Behoueth to gone out of countre, 
Leaue hole thyn hert in hostage." 

Rom. of the Rose, fol. 132. p. 2. col. 2. 

From the Latin Fores, Foris, the French had Fors (their 
modern Hors). And of the French Fors, our ancestors (by 
their favourite pronunciation of Th) made poji^^ forth : as from 
the French Asses or Assez, they made asseth, i. e. enough, 
sufficient. 

" Eychesse ryche ne maketh nought 

Hym that on treasour sette his thought : 

For rychesse stonte in suffysaunce. 

And nothyng in haboundaunce : 

For suffysaunce al onely 

Maketh menne to lyue rychely. 

For he that hath mytches tweyne 

Ne value in hys demeyne, 

Lyueth more at ease, and more is riche, 

Than dothe he that is chiche 

And in his barne hath, soth to sayne, 

An hundred mauis of whete grayne, 

Though he be chapman or marchaunt. 

And haue of golde many besaunt : 

* FoR-DO, i. e. Forth-done, i. e. Bone to go forth, or caused to go 
FORTH, i. e. Out of doors. In modern language, turned out of doors. — • 
[It should rather be explained in connection with other verbs com- 
pounded with FOR ; see Additional Notes. — Ed.] 

^ Fore, i. e. Fors or forth. — [Rather the past participle of fare, to 
go.— Ed.] 

T 2 



276 OF ADVERBS. [PART I. 

For in the gettyng he hath suche wo, 
And in the kepyng drede also, 
And sette euermore his besignesse 
For to encrese, and nat to lesse, 
For to augment and multiplye. 
And though on heapes that lye him by, 
Yet neuer shal make rychesse 
AssETH unto hys gredynesse." ^ 

Rom. of the Rose, fol. 146. p. 2. col. 2. 

The adverbs Outforth, Inforth, Withoutforth, Withinforth 
(whicli were formerly common in the language), have appeared 
very strange to the moderns ; but with this explanation of forth, 
I suppose, they will not any longer seem either unnatural or 
extraordinary. 

" Within the hertes of folke shall be the biting conscience, and with- 
oidfortli shal be the worlde all brenning." — Chaucer^ Persons Tale, 
fol 102. p. 1. col. 2. 

" Whan he was come unto his neces place, 
Where is my lady, to her folke (quod he) ; 
And they him tolde, and Inforth in gan pace. 
And founde two other ladyes sit and she." 

Troylus, boke 2. fol. 163. p. 2. col. 1. 
" And than al the derkenesse of his misknowing shall seme more evi- 
dently to the sight of his understandyng, than the sonne ne seemeth to 
the sight Without fo7'tJie.'" — Boecius, boke 3. fol. 238. p. 2. col. 2. 

*' Philosophers, that hyghten Stoiciens, wende that yraages and sen- 
sibilities war emprinted into soules fro bodies Withoutforthr — Ibid. 
boke 5. fol. 250. p. 2. col. 2. 

" There the vaylance of men is demed in riches Outforth, wenen men 
to haue no proper good in them selfe, but seche it in straunge thinges." 
—Test, of Lone, boke 2. fol. 316. p. 2. col. 2. 

^ I have been compelled to make the above long extract, that my 
reader's judgement may have fair play ; and that he may not be misled 
by the interpretation given of asseth in the glossary of Urry's edition 
of Chaucer ; where we are told, that asseth means—" Assent, to 
Answer ; from the Anglo-Saxon Xj-e^ian, offirmare.'' When the reader 
recollects the suffysaunce which is spoken of in the first part of the ex- 
tract, he will have little difficulty, I imagine, to perceive clearly what 
ASSETH here means : for the meaning of the whole passage is — snffisance 
alone makes riches ; which snffisance the miser's greediness will never 
permit him to obtain. 



CH. X.] OF ADVERBS. 1^77 

*' The goodnesse (quod she) of a person maje not ben knowe Outforth, 
but by renome of the knowers." — Test, of Loue, boke 2. fol. 319. p. 1. 
col. 2. 

" But he that OutfortJi loketh after the waves of this knot, connyng 
with which he shuld knowe the way InfortJi, slepeth for the tyme ; 
wherfore he that wol this way know, must leave the lok}'ng after false 
wayes Oiitforth, and open the eyen of his conscyence and unclose his 
herte."— 76^"^. boke 2. fol. 322. p. 1. col. 2. 

"Euery herbe sheweth his vertue Oidfortlie from wythin." — Ihid, 
boke 2. fol. 323. p. 1. col. 1. 

" Loue peace Withoute forth, loue peace WitJdnfortJi, kepe peace 
with all men." 

" There is nothinge hid from God. Thou shalte be found gilty in 
the judgmentes of God, though thou be hid to mens judgementes : for 
he beholdeth the hert, that is WitJiinforth.'" — TJio. Lupset, Gathered 
Counmils. 

Gadso. 

Cazzo, a common Italian oath (or ratlier obscenity, in lieu of 
an oatli)_, first introduced about the time of James the First, 
and made familiar in our language afterwards by our affected 
travelled gentlemen in the time of Charles the Second. — See all 
our comedies about that period. 

Ben Jonson ridiculed the affectation of this oath at its com- 
mencement, but could not stop its progress. 

" These be our nimble-spirited Catso's, that ha' their evasions at 
pleasui'e, will run over a bog like your wild Irish ; no sooner started 
but they '11 leap from one thing to another, like a squirrel. Heigh ! 
dance and do tricks in their discourse, from fire to water, from water to 
air, from air to earth : as if their tongues did but e'en lick the four ele» 
ments over and away." — Every Man out of his Humour , act 2. sc. 1. 

Much. More. Most. 
These adverbs have exceedingly gravelled all our etymo- 
logists, and they touch them as tenderly as possible. 

Much. 

Junius, and Skinner (whom Johnson copies), for much, 
irrationally refer us to the Spanish Mucho. 

More. 
Under the article more (that he may seem to say something 



278 OF ADVERBS. [PART I. 

on the subject), Junius gives us this so little pertinent or edi- 
fying piece of information : — " Anglicum interim more est inter 
ilia, quse Saxonicum a in o convertunt; sicuti videmus usu 
venisse in ban, bone, os, ossis ; hal, whole, integer, sanus ; ham, 
home, domus, habitatio ; j'tan, stone, lapis,^' &c. 

Skinner says — ^^ More, Mo, ab A.S. OQa, COapa, OOsepe, COape, 
&c. Quid si omnia a Lat. Major ? ^' 

S. Johnson finds more to be adjective, adverb, and sub- 
stantive. The adjective, he says, is — "The comparative of 
Some or Great.'' The adverb is — "The particle that forms 
the comparative degree/^ — "Perhaps some of the examples 
which are adduced under the adverb, should be placed under 
the substantive.'^ — " Tt is doubtful whether the word, in some 
cases, be noun or adverb.^^ 

Most. 

Junius says, untruly, — "Most: Ex positivo nempe msepe, 
fuit comparativus mseppe, et superlativus msepej-fc, et contracte 
msept.^' 

Skinner — " Teut. Meist feliciter alludit Gr. fjueia-Tov, plu- 
rimum, maximum, contr. a fjueycarov." 

S. Johnson again finds in most an adjective, an adverb, and a 
substantive. Of the adverb he says, it is — " The particle 
noting the superlative degree.'^ Of the substantive he says 
— "This is a kind of substantive, being according to its 
signification, singular or plural.'' And he gives instances, as 

he conceives, of its plurality and singularity. 1 have 

wasted more than a page in repeating what amounts to 
nothing. 

Though there appears to be, there is in reality no irregularity 
in MUCH, MORE, MOST : nor indeed is there any such thing as 
capricious irregularity in any part of language. 

In the Anglo-Saxon the verb OOapan, meter e, makes regu- 
larly the prseterperfect OQop, or OQope (as the prseterperfect of 
Slajan is Sloh), and the past participle Mowen or GQeopen, 
by the addition of the participial termination en, to the prse- 
terperfect. Omit the participial termination en (which omis- 
sion was, and still is, a common practice through the whole 
language, with the Anglo-Saxon writers, the old English 
writers, and the moderns), and there will remain COope or 



CH. 



X.] OF ADVERBS. 879 



Mow ; which gives us the Anglo-Saxon GOope and our modern 
English word Mow : which words mean simply — that which 
is Mowed or Mown. And as the hay, &c. which was mown, 
was put together in a heap j hence, figuratively , COope was 
used in Anglo-Saxon to denote any heap : although in modern 
English we now confine the application of it to country pro- 
duce, such as Hay-mow, Barley-Mow, &c.^ This participle or 
substantive (call it which you please ; for, however classed, it 
is still the same word, and has the same signification) Mow or 
Heap, was pronounced (and therefore written) with some 
variety, 00a, OOse, GOo, GOope, Mow; which, being regularly 
compared, give 

GOa . . . Ma-er (i. e. mape) . . . Ma-est (i. e. msept) 

(X)dd . . . M(B-er (i. e. msepe) . . . Ma-est (i. e. msepfc) 

GOope . . Mow-er (i. e. mope) . . . Mow-est (i. e. mope) 

Mo . . . Mo-er (i. e. more) . . . Mo-est (i. e. most). 

I have here printed in the Anglo-Saxon character, those 
words which have come down to us so written in the Anglo- 
Saxon writings : and in Italics, the same words in sound ; but 
so written, as to show the written regularity of the com- 
parison : and in capitals, the words which are used in what 
we call English; though indeed it is only a continuation of 
the Anglo-Saxon, with a little variation of the written cha- 
racter. 

Mo (mope, acervus, heap), which was constantly used by 
all our old English authors, has with the moderns given place 
to MUCH : ^ which has not (as Junius, Wormius, and Skinner 

^ Gawin Douglas uses the word Mowe, for a heap of wood, or a 
funeral pile. 

" Under the oppin sky, to this purpois, 
Pas on, and of treis thou mak an bing 
To be ane fyre, &c. 

Tharfore scho has hir command done ilk dele. 
But quhen the grete bing was upbeildit wele 
Of aik treis, and fyrren schidis dry 
Wythin the secrete cloys under the sky, 
Aboue the mowe the foresaid bed was maid." 

Booke 4. p. 117. 

[But CDa or Mo is never found except as the comparative; thus 
mycle ma, much more, ma Sonne, more than: while OOsejia, OOaejie, 



280 or ADVERBS. [part I. 

imagined of Mickle) been borrowed from /jueyaXof;, but is merely 
the diminutive of mo^ passing through the gradual changes of 
MoJcelj Mykel, Mochil, Muchel (still retained in Scotland), 
Moche, MUCH. 

" Yes certes (quod she) Who is a frayler thynge than the fleshly body 
of a man, ouer whiche haue often tyme flyes, and yet lasse thynge than a 
flye, MOKEL myght in greuaunce and anoyenge." — Chaucer, Test, of Loue, 
boke 2. fol. 319. p. 1. col. 1. 

" Opinion is while a thinge is in non certayne, and hydde frome mens 
very knowlegyng, and by no parfyte reason fully declared, as thus : yf 
the Sonne be so mokel as men wenen, or els yf it be more than the 
erth."— /5i^. boke 3. fol. 325. p. 2. col. 2. 

" A lytel misgoyng in the gynning causeth mykel errour in the end.'* 
—Ibid, boke 2. fol. 315. p. 2. col. 1. 

*' badde and stray te bene thilke (richesse) that at their departinge 
maketh men teneful and soiy, and in the gatheryng of hem make men 
nedy. .Moche folke at ones mowen not togider moche therof haue." — 
Ibid, boke 2. fol. 316. p. 2. col. 1. 

*' Good chylde (quod she) what echeth suche renome to the conscience 
of a wyse man, that loketh and measureth hys goodnesse not by sleuelesse 
wordes of the people, but by sothfastnesse of conscience : by God, nothynge. 
And yf it be fayre a mans name be eched by moche folkes praysing, and 
fouler thyng that MO folke not praysen." — Ibid, boke 2. fol. 319. p. 2. 
col. 1. "^ 

** Also lyght as thou were ensample of moche folde errour, righte so 
thou must be ensample of many folde correctioun." — Ibid, boke 1. fol. 
310. p. 1. col. 2. 

Nevertheless. 

In our old authors written variously, Na-the-leSj Ne-the-les, 
Nocht-the-leSy Not-the-leSj Never-the4ater : its opposite also was 
used, Wel'the-later. 

*' Truely I say for me, sythe I came thys Margarit to serue, durst I 
neuer me discouer of no maner disease, and wel the later hath myn 
herte hardyed such thynges to done, for the great bounties and worthy 



magnus, is positive, answering to the Teutonic Mor, Mer, and the Celtic 
Mawr. With regard to Mickle, it constantly occurs in all the earliest 
Teutonic dialects : — Goth. MIKlAS. Francic MiMil, A.S. Micel, Isl. 
Mikle, Su. G. Magic— Y.d.-] 



CH. X.] OF ADVERBS. 281 

refreshmentes that she of her grace goodly without anye desert on my 
halue ofte hath me rekened." — Test, of Loue, boke 3. fol. 333. p. 3. 
col. 1. 

" Habyte maketh no monke, ne wearynge of gylte spurres maketh no 
knyghte : neueethelater in conforte of thyne herte, yet wol I other- 
wyse answere." — Ihid. boke 3. fol. 333. p. 3. col. 3. 

Rather. 

In English we have Rath, Rather, Rathest ; which are simply 
the Anglo-Saxon Ra^, Ra^oji, Ra^OfC. celer, velox. 

Some have derived this English word rather from the Greek; 
as Mer. Casaubon from opOpo^j "quod sane (says Skinner) 
longius distat quam mane a vespere : '' and others^ with a little 
more plausibility^ from 'PaSto^. 

The Italians have received this same word from our Northern 
ancestors^ and pronounce it Ratio, with the same meaning : 
which Menage derives either from Raptus or from Rapidus, 
" Rapdus, RapdOy Raddo, Ratto" 

Skinner no'tices the expressions Rath fruity and Rath wine, 
from the Anglo-Saxon Ra^ ; of which, after Menage, he says — 
" Nescio an contract, a Lat. RapidusJ'^ 

Minshew derives rather from the Lat. Ratus. Ray has a 
proverb — " The Rath sower never borrows of the late.^^ 

S. Johnson cites Spenser (except himself, the worst possible 
authority for English words) — 

" Thus is ray harvest hasten'd all to EatJie.'^^ 
And May — 

" BatJi ripe and purple grapes there be." 

" Rath ripe are some, and some of later kind." 
And Milton — 

" Bring the Bathe primrose that forsaken dies." 

And he adds most ignorantly — " To have Rather. This I think 
a barbarous expression, of late intrusion into our language ; for 
which it is better to say — will rather" 

Dr. Newton, in a note on Lycidas, says of the word Rathe — 
" This word is used by Spenser, B. 3. cant. 3. st. 28. — 

* Too Rathe cut off by practice criminal.' 
'^ And Shepherd's Calendar, 

' The Rather lambs been starved with cold.' " 



282 OF ADVERBS. [part I. 

T. Warton, in his note on the same passage of Milton, 
says, — "The particular combination of. Rathe primrose, is 
perhaps from a pastoral called a Palinode by E. B. (probably 
Edmond Bolton,) in Englcmd's HelicoUj edit. 1614. signat. 
B. 4. 

* And made the Bathe and timely primrose grow.' 

" In the West of England, there is an early species of apple 
called the Rathe-ripe'. We have — 'Rathe and late' — ^in a 
pastoral, in Davison's Poems, edit. 4. London, 1621. p. 177. In 
Bastard's Epigrams, printed 1598, I find — ' The Rashed prim- 
rose and the violet.' Lib. 1. epigr. 34. p. 12. 12mo. Perhaps 
Rashed is a provincial corruption from Rathe." 

By the quotations of Johnson, Newton, and Warton, from 
Spenser, May, Bolton, Davison, and Bastard, a reader would 
imagine that the word rathe was very little authorized in the 
language; and that it was necessary to hunt diligently in 
obscure holes and corners for an authority. 

" And netheles there is no man 

In all this worlde so wise, that can 

Of loue temper the measure : 

But as it faUeth in auenture. 

Por witte ne strength maie not helpe 

And whiche els wolde him yelpe, 

Is EATHEST throweu under foote." 

Gower, lib. 1. fol. 7. p. 2. col. 2. 
" Some seyne he did well enough, 
• And some seyne, he did amis. 

•Diners opinions there is. 

And commonliche in euery nede 

The werst speche is rathest herde." 

Ub. 3. fol. 59. p. 1. coll. 
" That euery loue of pure kynde 

Is fyrst forthe drawe, well I fynde : 

But netheles yet ouer this 

Deserte dothe so, that it is 

The RATHER had in many place." — lib. 4. fol. 72. p. 1. col. 1. 

"Whothatisbolde, 

And dar travaile, and undertake 

The cause of loue, he shall be take 

The RATHER unto loues grace. "-^lib. 4. fol. 75. p. 1. col. 2. 



CH. X.] OF ADVERBS. ^83 

" But fortune is of suclie a sleyght, 
That whan a man is most on height. 
She maketh hym rathest for to falle." 

Gower, lib. 6. fol. 135. p. 2. col. 2. 
" Why ryse ye so rathe ? Ey, benedicite, 

What eyleth you ? " — Chaucer, Myllers Tale, fol. 15. p. 1. col. 1. 
" O dere cosyn, Dan Johan, sbe sayde, 
What eyleth you so rathe to a ryse ? '* 

SJiypmans Tale, fol. 69. p. 1. col. 2. 
" For hym my lyfe lyeth al in dout 
But yf he come the rather out." 

jRoiu, of the Bose, fol. 141. p. 2. col. 1. 
" They wolde eftsones do you scathe 

If that they myght, late or rathe." — Ibid. fol. 152. p. 1. col. 1. 
" And haue my trouth, but if thou finde it so, 
I be thy bote, or it be ful longe, 
To peces do me drawe, and sythen honge. 
Ye, so sayst thou ? (quod Troylus) alas : 
But God wot it is naught the rather so." 

Troylus, boke 1. fol. 161. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Loke up I say, and tel me what she is 
Anon, that 1 may gon about thy nede, 
Knowe iche her aught, for my loue tel me this. 
Than wold I hope rather for to spede." 

Ibid, boke 1. fol. 161. p. 2. col. 2. 
" And with his salte teeres gan he bathe 
The ruby in his signet, and it sette 
Upon the wexe delyuerlychfe and rathe." 

Ibid, boke 2. fol. 169. p. 1. col. 1. 
" But now to purpose of my rather speche." 

Ibid, boke 3. fol. 179. p. 2. col. 2. 
*' These folke desiren no we delyueraunee 
Of Antenor that brought hem to mischaunce. 
For he was after traytour to the toun 
Of Troy alas ; they quitte him out to rathe." 

Ibid, boke 4. fol. 18.3. p. 2. col. 1. 
" But he was slayne alas, the more hanne is, 
Unhappely at Thebes al to rathe." 

Ibid, boke 5. fol. 195. p. 2. col. 1. 

" Yf I (quod she) haue understonden and knowen utterly the causes 

and the habite of thy malady, thou languyshest and art defected for 

desyre and talent of thy rather fortune. She that ylke fortune onelye 



284 OF ADVERBS. [PART T. 

that is chaunged as thou faynest to thewarde, hath perverted the clere- 
nesse and the estate of thy corage." — Boecius, boke 3. fol. 225. p. 1. 
col. 2. 

" Whylom there was a man that had assayed with stryuynge wordes 
an other man, the which not for usage of ve?y vertue, but for proude 
vayne glorye, had taken upon him falsely the name of a phylosophre. 
This RATHER man that I spake of, thought he wold assay, wheder he 
thilke were a phylosophre or no." — Ibid, boke 2. fol. 230. p. 2. col. 2. 

** Diuyne grace is so great that it ne may not ben ful praysed, and this 
is only the maner, tnat is to say, hope and prayers. ' 'For which it semeth 
that men wol speke with God, and by reson of supplycacion bene con- 
ioyned to thylke clerenesse, that nys nat approched no rather or that 
men seken it and impetren it." — Ibid, boke 5. fol. 249. p. 2. col. 1. 
'* Graunt mercy good frende (quod he) 
I thanke the, that thou woldest so ; 
But it may neuer the rather be do, 
No man may my sorowe glade." 

Dreajne of Chaucer, fol. 256. p. 1. col. 1. 
" The rather spede, the soner may we go, 
Great coste alway there is in taryenge. 
And longe to sewe it is a wery thynge." 

Assemble of Lady es, fol. 275. p. 2. col. 3. 

" Thilke sterres that ben cleped sterres of the northe, arysen rather 

than the degree of her longytude, and all the sterres of the southe, 

arysen after the degree of her longytude." — Astrolabye, fol. 280. p. 2. 

col. 1. 

" But lesynges with her flatterye, 
With fraude couered under a pytous face 
Accept be no we rath est unto grace." 

Blacke KnygU, fol. 289. p. 2. col. 2. 
" That shal not nowe be tolde for me, 
Por it no nede is redily, 
Folke can synge it bet than I, 
For al mote out late or rathe." 

Jame, boke 3. fol. 302. p. 1. col.iJ. 
" Who was ycrowned ? by God nat the strongest, but he that rathest 
come and lengest abode and continued in the iourney and spared nat to 
trauayle."— Tes^. of Loue, boke 1. fol. 307. p. 1. col. 2. 

*' Euery glytteryng thinge is not golde, and under colour of fayre 
speche many vices may be hyd and conseled. Therfore I rede no wight 
to trust on you to rathe, mens chere and her speche right guyleful is 
ful ofie."— Ibid, boke 2. fol. 314. p. 2. col. 2. 



CH. X.] OF ADVERBS. 285 

" Veryly it is proued that rychesse, dygnyte, and power, been not 
trewe waye to the knotte, but as rathe by suche thynges the knotte to 
be unbound." 

" Than (quod she) wol I proue that shrewes as rathe shal 

ben in the knotte as the good." — Test of Loue, boke 3. fol. 319. p. 1. 
col. 1. 

" Ah, good nyghtyngale (quod I then) 
A lytel haste thou ben to longe hen. 
For here hath ben the leude cuckowe 
And songen songes rather than hast thou." 

Cuckowe and Nyghtyngale, fol, 351. p. 1. coL 2. 

" His feris has this pray ressauit raith, 
And to thare meat addressis it for to graith." 

Douglas, booke 1, p. 19, 

" Quhen Paris furth of Phiyge, the Troyane bird 
Socht to the ciete Laches in Sparta, 
And thare the douchter of Leda stal awa. 
The fare Helene, and to Troy tursit raith." 

Ibid, booke 7. p. 219. 
*' And sche hir lang round nek bane bowand raith. 
To gif thaym souck, can thaym culze bayth." 

Ibid, booke 8. p. 266. 

*' The princis tho, quhilk suld this peace making, 
Turnis to wart the bricht sonny s uprisyng, 
With the salt melder in thare handis raith." 

Ibid, booke 12. p. 413. 

FlE ; 

The imperative of the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon verb_, J^lA^^s 
Fian^ To hate. 

Quickly. 

Quick-like : from Cpic^ cpicu^ cpicob^ vivus^ (as we still oppose 
the Quick to the Dead) . Cpic is the past participle of Cpiccian, 
vivificare. Quickly means, in a life-like or lively manner; 
in the manner of a creature that has life. 

Scarce. 

The Italians have the adjective Scarso : 

" Queste parole assai passano il core 
Al tristo padre, e non sapca che fare 



286 OF ADVERBS. [PART I. 

Di racquistar la sua figlia e I'onore, 
Perche tutti i rimedj erano soaesi." 

II Morgante, cant. 10. st. 128. 

whicli Menage improbably derives from Eooparcus, The same 
word in Spanish is written Escasso. Both the Italian and the 
Spanish words are probably of Northern origin. In Dutch 
Skaars is^ rare, unfrequent. It is still commonly used as 
an adjective in modern English; but anciently was more 
common. 

" Hast thou be scarse or large of gifte 
Unto thy loue, whom thou seruest ? 
And saith the trouth, if thou hast bee 
Unto thy loue or scarse or free." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 109. p. 1. col. 2. 

" What man that scarse is of his good, 
And wol not gyue, he shall nought take." 

Ibid. fol. 109. p. 2. col. 1. 

" That men holde you not to scarce, ne to sparyng." 

Tale of Chaucer, fol. 80. p. 2. col. 1. 

" Loke that no nian for scarce the holde, 
For that may greue the manyfolde." 

Bom. of the Rose, fol. 131. p. 1. col. 1. 

Seldom. 

" I me reioyced of my lyberte 
That selden tyme is founde in mariage." 

Gierke of Oxenf. Tale, fol. 46. p. 1. col. 1. 

The Dutch have also the adjective Zelden, Selten : The Ger- 
mans Selten : The Danes Seldsom : The Swedes Sellsynt .—rare, 
unusual, uncommon. 

Stark. 

According to S. Johnson this word has the following signifi- 
cations— >S/i^, strong, rugged, deep, full, mere, simple, plain, 
gross. He says, " It is used to intend or augment the significa- 
tion of a word : as, Stark mad, mad in the highest degree. It 
is now little used but in low language.'^ 

In the Anglo-Saxon Stapc, Sceapc, German Starck, Dutch 



CH. X.] OF ADVERBS. 287 

Sterk, Danish Stmrkj Swedish Stark, as in the English^ all mean 
Strong. It is a good English word ; common in all our "old 
writers^ still retaining its place amongst the moderns, and never 
had an interval of disuse. 

" And she that helmed was in starke stoures, 
And wan by force townes stronge and toures." 

Chaucer^ Monkes Tale, fol. 85. p. 3. col. 2. 
" But unto you I dare not lye, 
But myght I felen or espye 
That ye perceyued it nothyng, 
Te shulde haue a starke leasyng." 

Rom. of the Hose, fol. 154. p. 2. col. 2. 
" This egle, of which I haue you tolde, 
Me flyeng at a swappe he hente, 
And with his sours agayne up wente 
Me caryeng in hys clawes starke 
As lyghtly as I had ben a larke." 

Fa7ne, boke 1. fol. 294. p. 2. col. 2. 
" The folio wand wynd blew sterke in our tail." 

Douglas, booke 3. p. 71. 
" So that, my son, now art thou souir and sterk, 
That the not nedis to haue ony fere." 

Ibid, booke 8. p. 265. 
" Tumus ane litil, thocht he was stare and stout, 
Begouth frawart the bargane to withdraw." 

Ibid, booke 9. p. 30&. 
*' Sa thou me saif, thy pissance is sa stark, 
The Troianis glorie, nor thare victorye 
Sail na thing change nor dymynew tharby." 

Ibid, booke 10. p. 336. 
" And at ane hie balk teyt up sche has 
With ane loupe knot ane stark corde or lace, 
Quharewith Mr self sche spilt with shameful dede." 

Ibid, booke 12. p. 432. 
" As fast lock'd up in sleep, as guiltless labour, 
"When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones." 

Shakesj)eare, Measure for Measure, act 4. sc. 2. 

" 1 Boor. Come, English beer, hostess. English beer, by th' belly. 

*' 2 Boor. Stark beer, boy : stout and strong beer. So. Sit down, 
lads, and drink me upsey-dutch. Frolick and fear not." — Beaumont and 
Fletcher. Beggars Bmh, act 3. sc. 1. 



288 of adverbs. [part i. 

Very; 
Means True, 

" And it is clere and open tliat thilke sentence of Plato is very and 
sotlie." — Chaucer. Boecius, boke 4. fol. 241. p. 2. col. 3. 

It is merely the French adjective Vrai, from the Italian, 
horn, the Latin. When this word was first adopted from the 
French, (and long afterj it was written by them, and by ns, 
VERAY; which they have since corrupted to Vraij and the 
English to very. 

" For if a kynge shall upon gesse 
Without VERAY cause drede, 
He male be liche to that I rede." 

Gower, lib. 7. fol. 162. p. 2. col. 2. 
" Constantyne thensample and myrrour 
To princes al, in humble buxumnesse 
To holy churche o veray sustaynour." 

Prologue to Cant. Tales. 
*' But as Ghriste was, whan he was on lyue, 
So is he there verament " — (vramient). 

Plowmans Tale^ fol. 99. p. 2. col. 1. 
" thou, my chyld, do lerne, I the pray, 
Vertew and veray labour to assay." 

Douglas, booke 12. p. 425. 
" Disce, paer, virtutem ex me Verurtique laborem : 
Fortunam ex aliis." ^ — Virgil. 

Once. At once. Twice. Thrice. 
Antiently written anes, anis, anys, ones, onys, twies, 

^ The word Jim in this passage, should in a modern version be 
translated Lord Grennille, Mr. Rose, Mr. Bundas, Mr. Wyndham, Mr. 
Pitt, Lord LAverpoot, &c. — who only assert modestly (what our pilfer- 
ing stewards and bailiffs will shortly tell us), that they hold their 
emoluments of office by as good a title, as any man in England holds 
his private estate and fair-earned property ; and immediately after prove 
to us, that they liold by a much better title. — Their proof is, for the 
present only a triple or quadruple (they may take half or two thirds of 
our income next year) additional assessment upon our innocent property ; 
whilst their guilty emoluments of office (how earned we know) remain 
untouched. 



CH. X.] or ADVERBS. 289 

TWTis, TWYisE, THRiES, THRYis, &c. are merely the Genitives ^ 
of 'Kne, 5?n, TVAL Tpa, Tpej, Tpij, Djii, Djiy, &c. i. e. One, 
Two, Three (The substantive Time, Turn, &c. omitted). 

The Italian and French have no correspondent adverb : they 
say Une fois, deux fois, Una volta, due volte, &c. The 
Dutch have Eens for the same purpose; but often forgo the 
advantage. 

*' For ONES that he hath ben bUthe 
He shal ben after sorie thkies." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 117. p. 1. col. 1. 

" For as the wylde wode rage 

Of wyndes maketh the sea sauage, 

And that was caulme bringeth to wawe, 

So for defaut and grace of la we 

The people is stered all at ones.'* 

Ibid. lib. 7. fol. 166. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Ye wote yovr selfe, she may not wedde two 

At ones." — KnygJdes Tale, fol. 5. p. 2. col. 2. 
*' Sythen Christ went neuer but onys 

To weddyng."-— TTy/^ of Bailie, Prol. fol. 34. p. 1. col. 1. 
" And first I shrew myself, both blode and bones, 

If thou begyle me ofter than ones." 

Nonnes Priest, fol. 91. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Sen, Pallas mycht on Grekis tak sic wraik. 

To birn thare schyppis, and aU for anis saik 

Droun in the seye." — Douglas^ booke 1. p. 14. 
" My faddir cryis, How ! feris, help away, 

Streik airis attanis with al the force ge may." 

Ibid, booke 3. p. 8. 
" The feblit breith ful fast can bete and blaw, 

Ne gat he lasare anys his aynd to draw." — Ibid, booke 9. p. 807. 
" Thries she turned hir aboute 

And THiiiES eke she gan downe ioute." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 105. p. 1. col. 1. 

^ [See Mr. Price's note H in p. 493 of his Edition of Warton's His- 
tory of English Poetry, 8vo. Vol. ii. Appendix ; and Mr. Stephenson's 
note in Boucher's Glossary, v. Anes, Atwyx, &c. Grimm points out a 
distinction between the genitival eines and the abstract einst, ' olim,' of 
the old German, still existing in the Swiss dialect, and probably in our 
provincial one'st, yanst. See Grammat. iii. 227, 228; Zahladvei'bia ; 
and Additional Notes. — Ed.] 

u 



290 OF ADVERBS. [PART I. 

" She made a cercle about hym thkies, 
And efte with fire of sulphur twies." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 105. p. 2. col. 2. 
" That hath been twyse hotte and twyse colde." 

Chaucer, Cokes Prol. fol. 17. p. 2. col. 2. 
**Por as Senec sayth : He that ouercometh his hert, ouercometh 
TWISE." — Tale of Chaucer, fol. 82. p. 2. col. 2. 
" In gold to graif thy fall twyis etlit he, 
And TWYISE for reuth failseis the faderis handis." 

Douglas, booke 6. p. 163. 

" He sychit profoundlye owthir twyis or thuyis." 

Ibid, booke 10. p. 349. 

Atwo. Athree. 
On tpa. On "Spy. In two; In three. The Dutch have 
Intween ; the Danes Itu, 

" And Jason swore, and said ther, 
That also wis God hym helpe, 
That if Medea did hym helpe, 
That he his purpose might wynne, 
Thei shulde neuer part atwynne." ^ 

Cotcer, lib. 5. fol. 102. p. 2. col. 1. 
*' That death us shulde departe atwo." 

lUd. lib. 4. fol. 84. p. 1. col. 1. 
" And eke an axe to smyte the corde atwo." 

Myllers Tale, fol. 14. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Ne howe the fyre was couched fyrst with Btre^ 
And than with drye stickes clouen athre." 

tes Tale, fol. 11. p. 1. col. 1. 



Alone. Only. 
All-one, One-like. In the Dutch, Een is one : All-een, 
ALONE : and All~een-lyk, only. 
" So came she to him priuely, 
And that was, wher he made his mone, 
Within a gardeine all him one." 

Gower, lib. 1. fol. 25. p. 2. col. 1. 
" The sorowe, doughter, which I make, 
Is not all on ELY for my sake, 
But for the bothe, and for you all." 

Ibid. lib. 1. fol. 25-. p. 2. col. 2. 

^ [" The vail of the temple was rent iti twain.'" — Matth. xxvii. 51. — Ed.] 



CH. X.] or ADVERBS. 291 

" All other leches he forsoke, 

And put him out of auenture 

Alonly to God's cure." — Gotcer, lib. 2. fol. 45. p. 2. col. 2. 
" And thus fuU ofte a daie for nought 

(Saufe ONLiCHE of myn owne thought) 

I am so with my seluen wroth." — Ibid. lib. 3. fol. 47. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Thre yomen of his chambre there 

All only for to seme hym were." 

Ibid. lib. 6. fol. 137. p. 1. col. 2. 
" For ALL ONELYCHE of gcntill loue 

My courte stont all coui'tes aboue." 

Ibid. lib. 8. fol. 187. p. 1. col. 2. 
" Thou wost well that I am Venus, 

Whiche all onely my lustes seche." 

Ibid. lib. 8. fol. 187. p. 2. col. 1. 

Anon. 
Junius is right. Anon means In one {subauditur instant, 
moment, minute), 

" For I woU ben certayne a wedded man, 
And that anon in all the hast I can." 

Marchauntes Tale, fol. 29. p. 1. col. 2. 
"Than Dame Prudence, without delay or tarieng, sent anone her 
messanger." — Tale of Chaucer, fol. 82. p. 1. col. 2. 

All our old authors use anon, for immediately, instantly. 
Mr. Tyrwhitt, vol. 4. note to verse 381 [Prol. to Canterb. 
Tales), says — '^From Pro nunc, I suppose, came Fo7^ the nunc; 
and so. For the Nonce.^ Just as from Ad nunc came anon." — 
I agree with Mr. Tyrwhitt, that the one is just as likely as the 
other. 

In the Anglo-Saxon, "Kn means One, and On means In: 
which word On we have in English corrupted to An before a 
vowel, and to A before a consonant ; and in writing and speak- 
ing have connected it with the subsequent word : and from this 
double corruption has sprung a numerous race of Adverbs ; 

^ [The reader is referred to Mr. Price's explanation of this phrase in 
his Appendix to Vol. ii. of Warton, 8vo edition, p. 496 ; where he shows 
it to be " for then oenes," " for the once," by transference of the final 
consonant of the article in the oblique case then to the initial vowel of the 
following word, — as in " at the nende," " at the nale," for " at than (the) 
end," &c. See also Grimm, iii. 107, in ein : and Boucher's Glossary, v. 
Atten. — Ed.] 

u 3 



292 OF ADVERBS. [PART I. 

which (only because there has not been a similar corruption) 
have no correspondent adverbs in other languages.^ 

Thus from On bsej, On niht:_, On lenje, On bpsebe, On 
bsec. On lanbe. On lipe. On mibban. On pihte, On fcpa. 
On pej ; we have Aday, Anight, Along, Abroad, Aback, 
Aland, Alive, Amid, Aright, Atwo, Away : and from On Kn, 

ANON. 

Gower and Chaucer write frequently In one : and Douglas, 
without any corruption, purely on ane. 

" Thus sayand, scho the bing ascendis on ane." 

Douglas y booke 4. p. 124. 

In a Trice. 
Skinner, not so happily as usual, says — ^^ In a Trice, fort, a 
Dan. at reyse, surgere, se erigere, attoUere, q. d. tantillo 
temporis spatio quanto quis se attoUere potest.^' 

S. Johnson — " believes this word comes from Trait Fr. 
corrupted by pronunciation. A short time, an instant, a stroke.^' 
The etymology of this word is of small consequence ; but, I 
suppose, we have it from the French ^ Trois : and (in a 
manner similar to anon) it means — In the time in which one 
can count Three — One, Two, Three and away. — Gower writes it 
Treis. 

" All sodenly, as who saith Treis, 
Where that he stode in his paleis, 
He toke him from the mens sight, 
Was none of them so ware, that might 

Set eie where he become." — Gower, lib. 1. fol. 24. p. 2. col. 1. 
The greater part of the other adverbs have always been well 
understood : such as, Gratis, Alias, Amen, Alamode, Indeed, In 
fact, Methinks,^ Forsooth, Insooth, &c. 

^ [Here Mr. Tooke appears to be in eiTor. A collection of them is 
given by Grimm, imder the head (V.) JP?'a>j)osittonale siibstantivische 
adverbia; such as, in rihti, enrlJite, enwege, a braut, &c. — Grammat. iii. 
144, 155.— Ed.] 

^ [But see Grimm, iii. 232-3.] 

^ [Meihinks : — 'it appears to me:' Germ. ' wich d?mkf.' It is the 
verb impersonal, governing the prefixed pronoun, as Webster correctly 
says, in the dative : 

" Dampnith and savith as him thinke." — Flowmans Tale, 2164. 

The explanation in RicharcTson's Dictionary, *' It thinketh or causeth 
me to think," is absurd. Wachter distinguishes between dunken 



CH. X.] OF ADVERBS. 298 

B. — But I suppose there are some adverbs which are merely 
cant words; belonging only to the vulgar; and which have 
therefore no certain origin nor precise meaning ; such as spick 
and SPAN, &c. 

Spick, Span. 
H. — I will not assert that there may not be such ; but I know 
of none of that description. It is true S. Johnson says of Spick 
and Span, that ^^ he should not have expected to find this word 
authorized by a polite writer." '' Span new/^ he says, " is used 
by Chaucer/ and is supposed to come from ypannan, To stretch. 
Sax. expandere, Lat. whence span. Span new is therefore origi- 
nally used of cloth, new extended or dressed at the clothier's : 
and spick and span new, is, newly extended on the spikes or 
tenters. It is, however, a low word." In spick and span, how- 
ever, there is nothing stretched upon spikes and tenters but the 
etymologist's ignorance. In Dutch they say Spikspelder-nieuw. 
And spyker means a warehouse or magazine. Spil or Spel 
means a spindle, schiet-spoelj the weaver's shuttle ; and spoelder 



and denJcen, which he says Junius has confounded. Is this one of those 
which Mr. Eichardson terms Wachter's " unnecessary distinctions ? '* 
See Additional Notes. — Ed.] 

^ Chaucer uses it, in the third book of Troylus, fol. 181. p. 3. col. 1. 
" This is a worde for al, that Troylus 

Was neuer ful to speke of this matere. 

And for to praysen unto Pandarus 

The bounte of his right lady dere, 

And Pandarus to thanke and maken chere. 

This tale was aye span ncAve to begynne, 

Tyl that the nyght departed hem atwynne." 

But I see no reason why Chaucer should be blamed for its use ; any 
more than Shakespeare for using Fire-new, on a much more solemn 
occasion. 

*' Maugre thy strength, youth, place and eminence, 
Despight thy victor sword, and Fire-neto fortune, 
Thy valour and thy heart, — thou art a traitor." 

King Lear, act 5. sc. 3. 
[ " Armado is a most illustrious wight, 

A man oi fire-new words, fashion's own knight." 

Love's Labour 's Lad, act i. sc. 1. 
*' Yonvjire-new stamp of honour is scarce current." 

Richard III., act 1. sc. 3.] 



294 OF ADVERBS. [pART I. 

the shuttle-thrower. In Dutch, therefore, Spik-spelder-nieuw 
means, new from the warehouse and the loom. 

In German they say — Span-neu and FunckeUneu. Spange 
means any thing shining; as Funckel means To glitter or 
sparkle. 

In Danish, Funkcelnye. 

In Swedish, Spitt spangande ny. 

In English we say Spick and Span-new, Fire-new j Brand-new, 
The two last Brand and Fire speak for themselves. Spick and 
Span-new means shining new from the warehouse. 

Aye. Yea. Yes. 

J5. — You have omitted the most important of all the Adverbs 
— AYE and NO. Perhaps because you think Greenwood has 
sufficiently settled these points — " -^2//' ^® says, " seems to be 
a contraction of the Latin word Aio, as Nay is of Nego. For 
our Nay, Nay; Ay, Ay; is a plain imitation of Terence's 
Negat quis 7 Nego. Ait ? Aio" Though I think he might 
have found a better citation for his purpose — ^^An nata est 
sponsa prsegnans ? Vel ai, vel negaP 

H. — I have avoided aye and no, because they are two of 
the most mercenary and mischievous words in the language, 
the degraded instruments of the meanest and dirtiest traffic in 
the land. I cannot think they were borrowed from the Romans 
even in their most degenerate state. Indeed the Italian, 
Spanish and French^ affirmative adverb, Sij is derived from 
the Latin, and means Be it (as it does when it is called an 
hypothetical conjunction). But our Aye, or Yea, is the Impe- 
rative of a verb of northern extraction ; and means — Have it, 
possess it, enjoy it. And yes, is Ay-es, Have, possess, enjoy 
that. More immediately perhaps, they are the French singular 
and plural Imperative Aye and Ayez ; as our corrupted O-'yes 

^ The Frencli have another (and their principal) affirmative adverb, 
Oui: which, Menage says, some derive from the Greek ovroai, but 
which he believes to be derived from the Latin Hoc est, instead of which 
was pronounced Hoce, then Oe, then One, then Oi, and finally Ouy. But 
(though rejected by Menage) Oui 4s manifestly the past participle of Ouir^ 
to hear : and is well calculated for the purpose of assent : for when the 
proverb says — *' Silence gives consent,'' — it is always understood of the 
silence, not of a deaf or absent person, but of one who has both heard 
and noticed the request. 



CH. X.] OF ADVERBS. 295 

of the cryer, is no other than the French Imperative Oyez, 
Hear J Listen.^ 

Danish, Ejer, To possess, have, enjoy. Eja, Aye or yea. 
Eje, possession. Ejer, possessor. 

Swedish, Eg a, To possess. /«, aye, yea. Eg are , possessor. 

German, /«, aye, yea. Eigener^ possessor, owner. Eigen, 
own. 

Dutch, EigeneUj To possess. Ja, aye, yea. Eigenschapj 
Eigendom, possession, property. Eigenaar, owner, proprietor. 

Anglo- Sax. Jf^en, own. ^Sjenbe, proprietor. Tfjennyfj'e, 
property. 



Not. No. 

As little do I think, with Greenwood, that not, or its abbre- 
viate NO, was borrowed from the Latin; or, with Minshew, 
from the Hebrew; or, with Junius, from the Greek. The 
inhabitants of the North could not wait for a word expressive of 
dissent, till the establishment of those nations and languages ; 
and it is itself a surly sort of word, less likely to give way and 
to be changed than any other used in speech. Besides, their 
derivations do not lead to any meaning, the only object which 
can justify any etymological inquiry. But we need not be any 
further inquisitive, nor, I think, doubtful concerning the origin 
and signification of not and no, since we find that in the Danish 
Nodig, and in the Swedish Nodig, and in the Dutch NoodCj Node, 
and NOj mean, averse, unwilling,^ 



* "And after on the daunce went 
Largesse, that set al her entent 
For to ben honorable and free. 
Of Alexander's kynne was she. 
Her most ioye was ywis, 
Whan that she yafe, and sayd : Haue this." 

Rom. of the Hose, fol. 125. p. 2. col. 1. 
Which might, with equal propriety, have been translated 

"When she gave, and said yes." 

' M. L'Eveque, in his " Essai sur les rapports de la ]angue des Slaves 

avec celle des anciens habitans du Latium," (prefixed to his History of 

Riusia,) has given us a curious etymology of three Latin adverbs ; which 

I cannot forbear transcribing in this place, as an additional confirmation 



296 or ADVERBS. [part I. 

And I hope I may now be permitted to have done with Ety- 
mology : for though, like a microscope, it is sometimes useful 
to discover the minuter parts of language which would other- 



of ray opinion of the Particles. — " Le changement de To en a doit a 
peine etre regarde comme une alteration. En effet ces deux lettres ont 
en Slavon tant d'affinite, que les Busses prononcent en a le tiers au moins 
des syllabes qu'ils ecrivent par un o. 

" Le mot qui signifioit auparavant (before Terra was used) la surface 
de la terre ; ce mot en Slavon est pole j qui par I'affinite de To avec I'a, 
a pu se changer en pale. Ce qui me fait presumer que ce mot se 
trouvoit aussi en Latin, c'est qu'il reste un verbe qui paroit forme de ce 
substantif ; c'est le verbe palo ou palare, errer dans le campagne : 
PALANS, qui erre de cote et d' autre, qui court les champs. L'adverbe 
PALAM tire son origine du meme mot. II signifie manifesteiTienty a de- 
couvert. Or, qu'est ce qui se fait a decouvert pour des hommes qui 
habitent des tentes ou des cabannes? C'est ce qui se fait en plein champs. 
Ce mot PALAM semble meme dans sa formation avoir plus de rapport 
a la langue Slavonne qu'a la Latine. II semble qu'on disc palam pour 
POLAMI, par les cJiamps, a travers les champs. Ce qui me confirme dans 
cette idee, c'est que je ne me rappelle pas qu'il y ait en Latin d'autre 
adverbe qui ait une formation semblable, si ce n'est son oppose, clam, 
qui veut dire secretement^ en cackette ; et qui me paroit aussi Slavon. 
Clam se dit pour kolami, et par une contraction tres conforme au genie 
de la langue Slavonne, klami, au milieu des Pieux : c'est a dire dans des 
cabannes qui etoient formees de Fleux revetus d'ecorces, de peaux, ou de 
brancliages. 

" J'oubliois l'adverbe coram, qui veut dire Levant, en presence. — 
* II diffore de pala.m (dit Ambroise Calepin) en ce qu'il se rapporte 
seulement a quelques personnes, et palam se rapporte a toutes : il 
entraine d'ailleurs avec lui I'idee de proximite.' — II a done pu marquer 
autrefois que Taction se passoit en presence de quelqu'un dans un lieu 
circonscrit ou ferme. Ainsi on aura dit coram pour korami, ou, 
Mejdou Korami ; parce que la cloture des habitations etoit souvent faite 
d'ecorce, KoraJ" 

I am the better pleased with M. L'Eveque's etj^mology, because he 
had no system to defend, and therefore cannot be charged with that par- 
tiality and prejudice, of which, after what I have advanced, I may 
be reasonably suspected. Nor is it the worse, because M. L'Eveque 
appears not to have known the strength of his own cause : for clam 
was antiently written in Latin calim : (though Pestus, who teUs us 
this, absurdly derives clam from clavibus, " quod his, quae celare volumus, 
claudimus ") and cala was an old Latin word for wood, or logs, or stakes. 
So Lucilius (quoted by Servius), " Scinde, puer, Calam, ut caleas." His 
derivation is also still further analogically fortified by the Danish corre- 
spondent adverbs : for in that language Geheim, geheimt, I Hemmellghedy 
(from Hiem home,) and / enrum (i. e. in a room) supply the place of 
Clmiii and Furdagen (or, in the face of day) supplies the place of Falum. 



CH. X.] OF ADVERBS. 297 

wise escape our sight ; yet is it not necessary to have it always 
in our hands, nor proper to apply it to every object. 

B. — If your doctrine of the Indeclinables (which I think we 
have now pretty well exhausted) is true_, and if every word in all 
languages has a separate meaning of its own, why have you left 
the conjunction that undecyphered ? Why content yourself 
with merely saying it is an Article^ whilst you have left the 
Articles themselves unclassed and unexplained ? 

H. — I would fain recover my credit with Mr. Burgess, at 
least upon the score of liberality. For the freedom (if he 
pleases, harshness) of my strictures on my "predecessors on 
the subject of language ^^ I may perhaps obtain his pardon, 
when he has learned from Montesquieu that — " Rien ne recule 
plus le progres des connoissances, qu'un mauvais ouvrage 
d'un auteur celebre : parcequ'avant d^instruire, il faut de- 
tromper : ^' or from Voltaire, that — " La faveur prodiguee aux 
mauvais ouvrages, est aussi contraire aux progres de Tesprit, 
que le dechainement contre les bons.^' But Mr. Burgess him- 
self has undertaken to explain the Pronouns : and if I did not 
leave the field open to him (after his undertaking) he might 
perhaps accuse me of illiberality towards my followers also. 
I hope the title wiU not offend him ; but I will venture to say 
that, if he does any thing with the pronouns, he must be con- 
tented to follow the etymological path which I have traced 
out for him. Now the Articles, as they are called, trench so 
closely on the Pronouns, that they ought to be treated of 
together : and I rather chuse to leave one conjunction unex- 
plained, and my account of the Articles imperfect, than fore- 
stall in the smallest degree any part of Mr. Burgesses future 
discovery. There is room enough for both of us.- The garden 
of science is overrun with weeds ; and whilst every coxcomb in 
literature is anxious to be the importer of some new exotic, the 
more humble, though (at this period of human knowledge espe- 
cially) more useful business of sarculation (to borrow an exotic 
from Dr. Johnson) is miserably neglected. 

B. — If you mean to publish the substance of our conversa- 
tion, you will probably incur more censure for the subject of 
your inquiry, than for your manner of pursuing it. It wiU be 
said to be virep ovov crKia^. 

H, — I know for what building I am laying the foundation : 



398 OF ADVERBS. [pART I. 

and am myself well satisfied of its importance. For those who 
shall think otherwise^ my defence is ready made : 

" Se questa materia non e degna. 
Per esser piu leggieri, 

D' un huom che voglia parer saggio e grave, 
Scusatelo con questo ; che s' ingegna 
Con questi van pensieri 
Pare il suo tristo tempo piu suave : 
Perche altrove non have 
Dove voltare il viso ; 
Che gli e stato interciso 
Modrar con altre iinprese ultra virtute" 



END OF THE FIRST PART. 



EHEA nXEPOENTA, 

PAET II. 



TO MESSIEUKS 



JAMES HAYGARTH. 
THOMAS HAEEISON. 
EDWAED HALE. 
THOMAS DRANE. 
MATTHEW WHITING. 
NOEEISON COVEEDALE. 



EOBEET MAIEIS. 
WILLIAM COOKE. 
CHAELES PEATT. 
MATTHIAS DUPONT. 
WILLIAM HAEWOOD. 
HENEY BULLOCK. 



}' 



To you, Gentlemen of my Jury, I present this small portion 
of the fruits of your integrity ; which decided in my favour the 
BiU of Chancery filed against my life ; ^ 

And to my learned Counsel, 



THE HON. THOMAS EESKINE. 

YICAEY GIBBS, Esq.; 



And their Assistants, 



HENEY DAMPIEE, Esq. 
EELIX VAUGHAN, Esq. 
JOHN GUENEY, Esq. 



^ [These three were challenged by the Attorney- General.] 
' The fears of my printer * (which I cannot call unfounded, in the 
present degraded state of the press) do not permit me to expose (as 
ought to be done) the circumstances producing, preceding, accompany- 
ing, and following my strange trial of six days for High Treason ; or to 
make any remarks on the important changes which have taken place in 
our criminal legal proceedings ; and the consequent future (insecurity) of 
the lives of innocent English subjects. 



[* Mr. Deodatus Bye—En.] 



" De moy voyant n'estre faict aulcun prix digne d'oeuvre, et consi- 
derant par tout ce tres-noble royaulme ung chascun aujourd'huy soy 
instamment exercer et travailler, part a la fortification de sa patrie, et 
la defiendre : part au repoulsement des ennemis, et les offendre — le 
tout en police tant helle, en ordonnance si mirijicque, et a provfit, tant 
evident pour Vadvenir. Par doncques n'estre adscript et en ranc mis des 
nostres en partie offensive, qui m'ont estime trop imbecille et impotent : 
de I'aultre qui est deffensive n'estre employe aulcunement : ay impute a 
honte plus que mediocre, estre veu spectateur ocieux de tant vaillans, 
diserts et chevalereux personalges qui en veue et spectacle de toute Europe 
jouent ceste imigne Fable et Tragique-comedie^ ne m'esvertuer de moy- 
mesme, et non y consommer ce rien mon tout, qui me restoit." — Rabelais, 
Prol. to 3rd book : edit. Du Chat. 1741. 



" The better please, the worse despise, I aske no more." 

Last line of the Epilogue to the Shepheards Calender, 



EHEA HTEPOENTA, &c, 

PAET !!• 



CHAPTER I. 

RIGHTS OF MAN. 



F} But your Dialogue^ and your Politics^ and your bitter 

Notes 

H. — Cantantes, my dear Burdett_, minus via Isedit. 

F. — CantanteSj if you please ; but bawling out the Rights of 
Man, they say, is not singing. 

H. — To the ears of man, what music sweeter than the Rights 
of man ? 

F. — Yes. Such music as the whistling of the wind before a 
tempest. You very well know what these gentlemen think of 
it. You cannot have forgotten 

" Sir, Whenever I hear of the word rights, I have learned to 
consider it as preparatory to some desolating doctrine. It seems 
to me, to be productive of some wide spreading ruin, of some 
wasting desolation." — Canning^ s Speech. 

And do you not remember the enthusiasm with which these 
sentiments were applauded by the House, and the splendid re- 
wards which immediately followed this declaration? For no 
other earthly merit in the speaker that QEdipus himself could 
have discovered. 

H. — It is never to be forgotten. Pity their ignorance. 

F. — Punish their wickedness. 

H. — We shall never, I believe, differ much in our actions. 



^ [The persons of the dialogue : H. the author ; F. Sir Francis Bur- 
dett, Bart.— Ed.] 



302 RIGHTS OF MAN. [PART II. 

wishes or opinions. I too say with you — Punish the wicked- 
ness of those mercenaries who utter such atrocities : and do 
you, with me, pity the ignorance and folly of those regular 
governments who reward them : and who do not see that a 
claim of rights by their people, so far from treason or sedition, 
is the strongest avowal they can make of their subjection : and 
that nothing can more evidently shew the natural disposition 
of mankind to rational obedience, than their invariable use of 
this word right, and their perpetual application of it to all 
which they desire, and to every thing which they deem 
excellent. 

F. — I see the wickedness more plainly than the folly; the 
consequence staring one in the face : for, certainly, if men can 
claim no rights, they canjioi justly complain of any wrongs. 

H. — Most assuredly. But your last is almost an identical 
proposition ; and you are not accustomed to make such. What 
do you mean by the words right and wrong ? 

F. — What do I mean by those words? What every other 
person means by them. 

H. — And what is that ? 

F. — Nay, you know that as well as I do. 

H. — Yes. But not better : and therefore not at all. 

F. — Must we always be seeking after the meaning of words ? 

H. — Of important words we must, if we wish to avoid im- 
portant error. The meaning of these words especially is of the 
greatest consequence to mankind; and seems to have been 
strangely neglected by those who have made the most use of 
them. 

F. — The meaning of the word right ? — Why — It is used so 
variously, as substantive, adjective, and adverb; and has such 
apparently different significations (I think they reckon between 
thirty and forty), that I should hardly imagine any one single 
explanation of the term would be applicable to all its uses. 

We say — A man's right. 
A RIGHT conduct. 
A RIGHT reckoning. 
A RIGHT line. 
The RIGHT road. 

To do RIGHT. 

To be in the right. 



CH. I.] RIGHTS or MAN. 303 

To have the right on one^s side. 
The RIGHT hand. 

Right itself is an abstract idea: and, not referring to any- 
sensible objects, the terms which are the representatives of 
abstract ideas are sometimes very difficult to define or explain. 

H. — Oh ! Then you are for returning again to your con- 
venient abstract ideas ; and so getting rid of the question. 

F. — No. I think it worth consideration. Let us see how 
Johnson handles it. He did not indeed acknowledge any 
RIGHTS of the people ; but he was very clear concerning Ghosts 
and Witches, all the mysteries of divinity, and the sacred, inde- 
feasible, inherent, hereditary rights of Monarchy. Let us see 
how he explains the term. 

Right 

Right 

Right 

No. He gives no explanation : ^ — Except of right hand. 

H. — How does he explain that ? 

F. — He says, right hand means '^ Not the Left J' 

H. — You must look then for left hand. What says he 
there ? 

F. — He says — left " sinistrouSj Not right.'' 

H. — Aye. So he tells us again that right is — " Not wrong/' 
and WRONG is — " Not right." ^ 

But seek no further for intelligence in that quarter ; where 
nothing but fraud, and cant, and folly is to be found — mis- 

^ Johnson is as bold and profuse in assertion, as lie is shy and sparing 
in explanation. He says that right means — " True." Again, that it 
means — "passing true judgmeyit" and — '^ passing a judgment according 
to the truth of things.'" Again, that it means — " Happy" And again, 
that it means — " Perpendicular." And again, that it means — " In a 
great degree." 

All false, absurd, and impossible. 

^ Our lawyers give us equal satisfaction. Say they — " Droit est, ou 
hm ad chose que fuit tolle d'auter per Tort ; le challenge ou le claim de 
luy que doit aver ceo, est terme droit." 

" Right is, where one hath a thing that was taken from another 
wrongfully ; the challenge or claim of him that ought to have it, is called 
right." — Terines de la Ley. 

[See how Dr. Taylor sweats, in his chapter of law and right, in his 
Elements of Civil Law. 

" Jus is an equivocal word, and stands for many senses according to 



304 RIGHTS OF MAN. [PART IT. 

leading, miscliievous folly; because it has a sham appearance 
of labour, learning, and piety. 

Right is no other than rect-z^tw {Regitum), the past par- 
ticiple of the Latin verb Regere} Whence in Italian you have 
RiTTO ; and from Dirigere, diritto, dritto : whence the French 
have their antient droict, and their modern droit. The 
Italian dritto and the French droit being no other than the 
past participle DirecUum? 

its difiFerent use and acceptation. Some lawyers reckon up near forty. 
From whence it follows that the Emperor and his lawyers, who begin 
theh works with definition, would have done better, if they had pro- 
ceeded more pMlosophico, and distinguished before they had defined. 

" Therefore in this great ambiguity of signification, what relief can be 
expected, must be had from the most simple and natural distribution ; 
and this is what I am endeavouring." — Taylor's Elements of Civil Law, 
p. 40. " JuRi operam daturum, prius nosse oportet, unde nomen Juris 
descendat." — lb. p. 55. 

" Jus generale est : sed Lex juris est species. Jiis ad non scripta etiam 
pertinet. Leges ad Jus scriptum." So says Servius, ad Virg. 1. Mn. 511. 
In this Dr. Taylor thinks Servius mistaking. I think the Doctor greatly 
mistaking, and Servius a good expositor.] 

* It cannot be repeated too often, that, in Latin, G should always be 
pronounced as the Greek r ; and c as the Greek K. If Begere had been 
pronounced in our manner, i. e. Bedjere ; its past participle would have 
been Redjiturn, Retcktum, not Rectum. And if Facere, instead of Raker e, 
had been pronounced Fassere ; its past participle would have been 
Fassitum, Fastmn ; not Fakitum, Faktum. 

[XEIP, Manus. Xeip-eiv — Xeip-epe, i. e. Ger-ere. Eem, or Ees- 
gerere, Re-gerere — Ee-gere. So Gerere — Gessi — Ee-gessi, Eegsi, Eexi. 

"Et quidem, initio civitatis nostrae, populus, sine Lege certa, sine 
Jure certo, primum agere instituit ; omniaque manu a regibus guber- 
nabantur."— i)?5. lib. 1. Tit. 2. lex 2. § 1. 

" Manus (says Dr. Taylor) is generally taken for power or authority, 
for an absolute, despotic, or unlimited controul. So Cicero (pro Quintio) 
— * Omnes quorum in alterius manu vita posita est, saspius illud cogi- 
tant, quod possit is, cujus in ditione et potestate sunt, quam quid 
debeat, facere.' And Seneca (iii Controv.) — ' Nemo potest alium in 
sua MANU habere, qui ipse in aliena est.' To bring home the word 
therefore, and to our purpose, manus, when applied to government, 
is that arbitrary kind of administration, which depends rather upon the 
will of one, than the consent of many." — Taylor's Elenwits of Civil Law, 
p. 6.] 

[The following are from iElfric's glossary : " Fas, Gobef y\\\\r.. Jus, 
manijTc fiihr. Jus naturale, Gecyube jiih-c. Jus publicum, Ealbojimanna 
jiiht. Jus Quiritum, Peala funbeji jidit:." — Ed.] 

' This important word Eectum is unnoticed by Vossius. And of 



CH. 1.] RIGHTS OF MAN. 305 

In tlie same manner our English word Just is the past 
participle of the yerhjubere} 

the etymology of Justum he himself hazards no opinion. What he 
collects from others concerning Rego and Jus, will serve to let the 
reader know what sort of etymology he may expect from them on other 
occasions. 

"Eego, et^^:c (quod tyi Regis contractum) quibusdam placet esse a 
pe^oi, id est, facio. Isidorus Regem ait dici a recte agendo. Sed hsec 
Stoica est allusio. Nam planum est esse a Bego. Hoc Caninius et 
Nunnesius non absurde pro Bago dici putant : esseque id ab apx(o, 
Kara fxeraOea-iv. Sed imprimis assentio doctissimo Francisco Junio, qui 
suspicatur Eego, omniaque ejus conjugata, venire a nomine Rac, quod 
Babyloniis Begem notabat, &c. 

"Jus forense di jiwando nut jubeudo dici putant. Alii Jus quidem 
cuUna7'ium a juvando deducunt ; foreme autem a juhendo. Eecentiores 
quidara mirificas originationes comment! sunt. Sane Franciscus Co- 
nanus jus civile dici ait a juxta; quia J uxta legem sit, et ei adsequetur et 
accommodetur, veluti suae regulse : quod etiam etymon adlert Jod. 
de Salas. At Galeotus Martins et Franciscus Sanctius tradunt, jus 
prima sua significatione signare olera aut pultem : sed quia in conviviis 
pares unicuique partes dabantur, ideo metaphorice jus vocatum, quod 
suum unicuique tribuit. Scipio Gentilis scribit — cum prisci in agris 
viverent, ssepeque infirmiores opprimerentur a potentioribus, eos qui 
afficerentur, ad misericordiam excitandam lov ia> solitos exclamare. Vult 
igitur ab lov, jous (ut veteres loquebantur) dictum esse ; quia injirmiores 
nil nisi JUS cupiant atque expostulent. 

" Alteram quoque erv/xoXoytai/ idem adfert ; ut a Jom sit jus \ quem- 
admodum Graecis hiKx] (ut aiunt) quasi Atos Kovpr\, Jovis filia. Sane 
verisimilior hsec etymologia, quam prior; quam et ii sequuntur, qui 
lovs dici volunt quasi Jovis Os ; quia nempe id demum justum sit, quod 
Deus sit profatus." 

^ [" Quod si populorura Jussis, si principum dec7'etis, si sententiis 
judicum Jura constituerentur." — Cicero de Leg. lib. 1.5. 

" Qui perniciosa et injusta populis Jussa descripserint." — Ibid. 1. 16. 

"The old Romans used iusa [i. e. lussa] for what we now write 
JURA. Quiuctilian, 1 — 7, says the same." See Dr. Taylor, Civil Law, 
p. 42. 

" Nel principio del mondo, sendo li habitatori ran vissono un tempo 
dispersi a similitudine delle bestie : dipoi raultiplicando la generazione, 
si raguuarno insieme, et per potersi meglio difendere, cominciarno a 
riguardare fra loro, quello che fusse piii robusto et di maggior' cuore, et 
fecionlo come capo, et I'obedivano. Da questo nacque la cognizione 
delle cose honeste et buone, differenti dalle pernitiose et ree : perche 
veggendo che se uno noccva al suo benefattore, ne veiiiva odio et com- 
passione tragli huomini, biasmando gli ingrati et honorando quelli che 
fussero gi'ati, et pensando aucora clie quelle medesime ingiurie potevano 
essere fatte a loro ; per fuggire simile male, si riducevano a fare leggi, 
ordinare punizioni a chi contra facesse ; donde venne la cognizione della 
Justitia." — Macchiavelli, Discorsi sopra Tito lAvio, lib. 1. cap. 2.] 



306 RIGHTS OF MAN. [PART II. 

Decree, edict, statute, institute, mandate, precept, are 
all past participles. 

i^.— What then is law? 

H. — In our antient books it was written Laugh, Lagh, Lage, 
and Ley ; as Inlaugh, Utlage, Hundred-Lagh, &c. 

It is merely the past tense and past participle Laj or Lsej/ 
of the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon verb \^VQ^t>l, Lecjan, 
ponere : and it means (something or any thing, Chose, Cosa, 
Aliquid) Laid down — as a rule of conduct. 

Thus, When a man demands his right ; he asks only that 
which it is Ordered he shall have. 

A RIGHT conduct is, that which is Ordered. 

A RIGHT reckoning is, that which is Ordered. 

A RIGHT line is, that which is Ordered or directed — (not a 
random extension, but) the shortest between two points. 

The RIGHT road is, that Ordered or directed to be pm-sued 
(for the object you have in view).^ 

To do RIGHT is, to do that which is Ordered to be done. 

To be in the right is, to be in such situation or circum- 
stances as are Ordered. 

To have right or law on one's side is, to have in one's 
favour that which is Ordered or Laid down. 

A RIGHT and just action is, such a one as is Ordered and 
commanded. 

A JUST man is, such as he is commanded to be — qui Leges 
Juraque servat ^ — who observes and obeys the things Laid down 
and commanded. 



^ [On ^am pp bocum ^e ODoyf ej* apjia-c Leuiticiij' ly f eo ^jnibbe. 
Nurae;i\i]f peofi^e. y'eo pipte yy geliaren Deutejiouoiiiiiim. 'Sai'c yy 
o^eji LADU. — JElfric. Be Veteri Te8tammto?\ 

^ [" All keepe the broad high way, and take delight 
Witli many rather for to goe astray, 
And be partakers of their evill plight, 
Then with a few to walke the right est way." 

Spenser's Faerie Queene, booke 1. canto 10. stanza 10.] 
^ It will be fonnd hereafter that the Latin Lex (i. e. Legs) is no other 
than our ancestors' past participle Lcej. But this intimation (though in 
its proper place here) comes before the reader can be ripe for it. 

In the mean time he may, if he pleases, trifle with Vossiua, concern- 
ing Lex : 

" Lex, ut Cic. 1 de Leg. et Yarro, v. de L. L. testantnr, ita dicta ; 



CII. I.] RIGHTS OF MAN. 307 

The RIGHT hand is_, that which Custom and those who have 
brought us up have Ordered or directed us to use in preference, 
when one hand only is employed : and the left hand is, that 
which is Leaved, Leaved, Left ; or, Avhich we are taught to 
Leave out of use on such an occasion. So that left, you see, 
is also a past participle. 

F. — But if the laws or education or custom of any countiy 
should order or direct its inhabitants to use the left hand in 
preference ; how would your explanation of right hand apply 
to them? And I remember to have read in a voyage of De 
Gama^s to Kalekut, (the first made by the Portuguese round 
Africa,) that the people of Melinda, a polished and flourishing 
people, are all Left-handed} 

H. — With reference to the European custom, the author 
describes them truly. But the people of Melinda are as 
Right-handed as the Portuguese : for they use that hand in 



quia Legi soleat, quo omnibus inuotescat. Sunt quibus a Legendo 
quidem dici placeat ; sed quatenus Legere est Eligere. Augustinus, sive 
alius, in. quaest. Novi Testam. * Lex ab Electione dicta est, ut e multis 
quod eligas sumas,' Aliqui etiani sic dici volunt, non quia populo 
Legeretiir, cum ferretur : — quod verum etymon putamus : — sed qiJia 
scriberetur, Legendaque proponeretur. At minime audiendus Thomas, 
quaest. xc. art. 1. ubi legem dici ait a Ligojndo. Quod etymon plerique 
etiam Scholasticorum adferunt." 

[" Lex (says Dr. Taylor in his Ciml Laic) is a general term, including 
every law enacted by a proper authority." — p. 146. 

The Greek words No/io? and efo-/>ioff have similar derivations from 
Ne/Lto), rego ; and Ti6r)\n, pono. 

In page 147, Dr. Taylor says — "Lex, in the laTge idea of it, includes 
every law enacted by a proper authority, and is applicable to the Law 
of Nature, as well as the Civil Law ; and to customary, or unwritten 
law, with the same propriety, as to written. It means a Eule, a Precept, 
or Injunction : a number or system of which, as we have seen above, 
gives us the idea of Jus." 

'* Hac lege tibi mcam adstringo fidem." — Terence, Eunuch, 

"Ea lege atque omine, ut, si te inde exemerim, ego pro te molam." 

Terence^ Andr. 

See Dr. Taylor, how he boggles, p. 151.] 

^ [" When the Grecians write, or calculate with counters, they carry 
the hand from the left to the right ; but the ^Egyptians, on the con- 
trary, from the right to the left: and yet pretend, in doing so, that 

V 9 



308 RIGHTS OF Mx\N. ^'^'' [PART II. 

preference wliich is Ordered by tlieir custom^ and Leave out 
of employ tlie other ; which is therefore their left hand.^ 

F. — Surely the word right is sometimes used in some 



their line tends to the 7'iffltt, and ours to the left." — Littlebui'y^s Transla- 
Hon of Herodotus, Euterpe, book 2. p. 158. 

*' Boys crown'd the beakers high 

With wine dehcious, and from right to left 

Distributing the cups, served ev'ry guest." 

Cowper'^s Iliad, vol. 1. ed. 3. p. 29. 
" He from rigid to left 

Eich nectar from the beaker drawn alert 

Distributed to aU the powers divine." — Ibid. vol. 1. ed. 2. p. 35. 

" Then thus Eupithes' son Antinoiis spake. 
From rigid to left, my friends ! as wine is given, 
Come forth, and in succession try the bow." 

Cowper's Odyssey, vol. 2, book 21. p. 230.] 

^ [In the 8th canto of the 1st book of the Faerie Queene, Spenser in 
the 10th stanza tells us, that Arthur, in his combat with the giant, 
" smott off his left arme." 

" With blade all burnins: bright 



P 
He smott off his left arme, which like a block 

• Did fall to ground." — Faerie Queene, booke 1. canto 8. st. 10. 

After which he tells us, in the 17th and 18th stanzas, that this same 
giant, 

" all enraged with smart and frantick yre, 

Came hurtling in fuU tiers, and forst the knight i-etyre. 

The force, which wont in two to be disperst, 

In one alone left hand he now unites. 

Which is through rage more strong than both were erst." 

Ibid, booke 1. canto 8. st. 18. 

This force in the left hand, after the left arme had been smitten 
off, puzzled the editors of Spenser; accordingly in four editions, right 
hand is substituted for left. 

On this last passage Mr. Church says, — " So the first and second 
editions, the folio of 1609, and Hughes's first edition, read: which is 
certainly wrong; for it is said, st. 10, 

* He smott off his left arme ' — 

I read with the folios 1611, 1679, and Hughes's second edition, — 

RIGHT HAND." 

On which Note Mr. Todd says, — " Mr. Church, \ believe, has fol- 
lowed too hastily tlie erring decision of tliose editions which read — 
RIGHT HAND. The poet means left as a participle : the giant has now 
but one single hand left ; in which, however, he unites the force of 



CH. I.] RIGHTS OF MAN. 309 

other sense. And see, in this Newspaper before ns/ M* 
Portalis, contending for the Concordat , says — " The multitude 
are much more impressed with what they are commanded to 
obe}^^ than what is proved to be right and jijst.'^ This will 
be complete nonsense, if right and just mean Ordered and 
commanded. 

H. — I will not undertake to make sense of the arguments 
of M. Portalis. The whole of his speech is a piece of wretched 
mummery employed to bring back again to France the more 
wretched mummery of Pope and Popery. "Writers on such 
subjects are not very anxious about the meaning of their words. 
^Ambiguity and equivocation are their strong holds. Explana- ") 
tion would undo them. 

F. — Well, but Mr. Locke uses the word in a manner hardly 
to be reconciled with your account of it. He says — "God 
has a right to do it, we are his creatures.'^ 

H. — It appears to me highly improper to say, that God has 
a RIGHT : as it is also to say, that God is just. For nothing 
is Ordered, directed or commanded concerning God. The ex- 
pressions are inappKcable to the Deity ; though they are com- 
mon, and those who use them have the best intentions. They 
are applicable only to men ; to whom alone language belongs, 
and of whose sensations only Words are the representatives ; to 
men who are by nature the subjects of Orders and commands,^ 
and whose chief merit is obedience. 

F. — Every thing then that is Ordered and commanded is 
RIGHT and JUST ! 



two. Mr. Upton's edition, and Tonson's of 1758, follow the original 
reading — In one alone left hand.^^ 

Mr. Todd has well explained the meaning of the passage ; but is 
not at all aware that left is equally a participle in both its appHca- 
tions. 

But Mr. Todd no where shows himself a Conjurer.] 

^ Morning Chronicle, Monday, April 12, 1802. 

^ What Ariosto fabled of his horses, is true of mankind : 

*' Si che in poclie ore fur tutti montati, 
Che con sella e confreno ei'ano 7iati." 

Orl. Fnr. canto 38. st. S^J. 



310 RIGHTS OF MAN. [PART II. 

• H. — Surely. For that is only affirming that what is Ordered 
and commanded, is — Ordered and commanded} 

F. — Now what becomes of your vaunted rights of man? 
According to you_, the chief merit of men is obedience : and 
whatever is Ordered and commanded is right and JUst ! This 
is pretty well for a Democrat ! And these have always been 
your sentiments ? 

H. — Always. And these sentiments confirm my demo- 
cracy. 

F. — These sentiments do not appear to have made you 
very conspicuous for obedience. There are not a few passages, 
I believe, in your life, where you have opposed what was Or- 
dered and commanded. Upon your own principles, was that 

RIGHT? 

i/".— Perfectly. 

F. — How now ! Was it Ordered and commanded that you 
should oppose what was Ordered and commanded? Can the 
same thing be at the same time both right and w^rong ? 

H. — Travel back to Melinda, and you will find the difficulty 
most easily solved. A thing may be at the same time both 
RIGHT and WRONG, as well as right and left.^ It may be 
commanded to be done, and commanded not to be done. The 
Law, Lsej, Laj, i. e. That which is Laid down, may. be different 
by different authorities. 



^ [Dr. Taylor, in his Elements of Civil Law, erroneously condemns 
Ulpian's Definition of the Law of Nature. Tlie Doctor's error springs 
from his not having been aware of the meaning of the words jus, rec- 
tum, LEX. 

" Jus naturale est quod Natura omnia animalia docidt'' — Diyed, 
book 1. tit. 1. Law 1. parag. 3. 

Instead of doc u it, he might have said jussit.] 

^ In an action for damages the Counsel pleaded, — "My client was 
travelling from Wimbledon to London : he ke})t the left side of the 
road, and that was right. The plaintiff was travelling from London 
to Wimbledon : he kept the right side of the road, and that was 

WllONG." 

" The rule of the road is a paradox c|uitc. 
In driving your carriage along, 
If you keep to the Lett, yon are sure to go uight ; 
If you keep to the iiiGur, \ou go wrong." 



CH. II.] OF ABSTRACTION. 311 

I have always been most obedient when most taxed with 
disobedience. But my right hand is not the right hand of 
Melinda. The right I revere is not the right adored by 
sycophants ; the Jus vagum, the capricious command of princes 
or ministers. I follow the law of God (what is Laid down 
by him for the rule of my conduct) when I follow the law^s of 
human nature; w^^ich^ without any human testimony, we 
know must proceed from God : and upon these are founded 
the rights of man_, or what is ordered for man. I revere the 
Constitution and constitutional laws of England; because 
they are in conformity with the law^s of God and nature : and 
upon these are founded the rational rights of Englishmen. 
If princes or ministers or the corrupted sham representatives 
of a people, order, command, or lay down any thing contrary 
to that which is ordered, commanded, or laid down by God, 
human nature, or the constitution of this government ; I will 
still hold fast by the higher authorities. If the meaner 
authorities are offended, they can only destroy the body of the 
individual; but can never affect the right, or that which is 
ordered by their superiors.^ 



CHAPTER II. 



OF ABSTRACTION. 



F. — Well, Well. I did not mean to touch that string which 
vibrates with you so strongly : I wish for a different sort of 

^["Qusedam jura noa scripta, sed omnibus scriptis certiora.^^ — 
Seneca (the father) I. Controv. 1. quoted by Dr. Taylor in his Elements 
of Civil Laic, p. 241. Custom. 

" Ante Legem Moysi scriptara in tabulis lapideis, legem 'fuisse con- 
tendo non scriptara, qua3 natiiraliter intelligebatur ; et a patribus custo- 
diebatur." — Tertullian. adversus Judceos, edit. Eigalt. p. 206. — Also 
quoted by Dr. Taylor. 

" No custom can prevail against rigid reason, and the law of nature." 
— Dr. Taylor, Elements of Cloil Law, p. 245. 

Again, p. 246 : " The will of the people is the foundation of custom. 
But if it be grounded not upon reason, but error, it is not the will of the 
people. Quoniam non velle videtur, qui erravit."] 



313 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

information. Your political principles at present are as much 
out of fashion as your clothes. 

H. — I know it. I have good reason to know it. But the 
fashion must one day return, or the nation be undone. For 
without these principles, it is impossible that the individuals of 
any country should long be happy, or any society prosperous. 

F, — I do not intend to dispute it with you. I see evidently 
that, not He who demands rights, but He who abjures them, 
is an Anarchist. For, before there can be any thing RECT-wm, 
there must be Reg-ens, Reg'Sj Rex,^ i. e. Qui or Quod Reg-it, 
And I admire more than ever your favourite maxim of — Rea^, 
Lex loquens ; ^ Lex, Rex mutus. I acknowledge the senses he 
has given us — the experience of those senses — and reason (the 
effect and result of those senses and that experience) — to be 
the assured testimony of God ; against which no human testi- 
mony ever can prevail. And I think I can discover, by the 
help of this etymology, a shorter method of determining dis- 
putes between well-meaning men, concerning questions of 
RIGHT : for, if RIGHT and just mean ordered and commanded, 
we must at once refer to the order and command ; and to the 
authority which ordered and commanded. 

But I wish at present for a different sort of information. Is 
this manner of explaining right and just and law and droit 
and dritto peculiarly applicable to those words only, or will 
it apply to others? Will it enable us to account for what is 
called Abstraction, and for abstract ideas, whose existence you 
deny ? 

H, — I think it will : and, if it must have a name, it should 
rather be called subaudition than abstraction ; though I mean 
not to quarrel about a title. 

^ The following lines have more good sense than metre : 
" Dum Rex a regere dicatur nomen habere, 
Nsmen habet sine re, nisi stndet jura tenere." 
So Judicans. — Judic's. Judix. Judex. 

Vindicans. — Vindic's. Vindix. Vindex. 

Duccns. — Due's. Dux. 

Indicans. — Indie's. Indix. Index. 

S'iniplicans. — Simplic's. Simplix. Simplex. 

Duplicans. — Duplic's. Duplix. Duplex. 

Sup-plicans. — Supplic's. Supplix. Supplex, &c. 
^ [BuchancDt, De Jure Reyni ajmd Scoton.'] 



CH. II.J 



or ABSTRACTION. 



313 



The terms you speak of, however denominated in construc- 
tion, are generally (I say generally) Participles or Adjectives 
used without any Substantive to which they can be joined ; and 
are therefore, in construction^ considered as Substantives. 
An Act — (aliquid) Act-wm.. 

A Fact — (aliquid) Fact-um. 

A Debt — (aliquid) Debit -wm. 

Rent — (aliquid) Rendit -Vim. redditum. 

Tribute — (aliquid) Tinbut-um.. 

An Attribute — (aliquid) Attribut-um. 
License — (aliquid) Incens-um. 

An Expanse — (aliquid) Expans-um.. Szc} 
Such words compose the bulk of every language. In English 
those which are borrowed from the Latin, French, and Italian, 
are easily recognized ; because those languages are sufficiently 
familiar to us, and not so familiar as our own : those from the 
Greek are more striking ; because more unusual : but those 
which are original in our own language have been almost wholly 
overlooked, and are quite unsuspected. 

These words, these Participles and Adjectives, not understood 
as such, have caused a metaphysical jargon and a false morality, 
which can only be dissipated bj^ etymology. And, when they 
come to be examined, you wiU find that the ridicule which Dr. 
Conyers Middleton has justly bestowed upon the Papists for 
their absurd coinage of Saints, is equally applicable to ourselves 
and to all other metaphysicians ; whose moral deities, moral 
causes, and moral qualities are not less ridiculously coined and 
imposed upon their followers. 

Fate Providence Spirit 

Destiny Prudence True 

Luck Innocence False 

Lot Substance Desert 

Chance Fiend Merit 

Accident Angel Fault 

Heaven Apostle &c. &c. 

Hell Saint 

^ It will easily be perceived, that we adapt the whole Latin word, 
omitting only the sequent Latin Article ; because we use a precedent 
Article of our own. For a similar reason we properly say — The Coran, 
and not the Al-coran. 



314 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

as well as just^ right and wrong/ are all merely Participles 
poetically embodied^ and substantiated by those who use them. 

So Church/ for instance,, {Dominicum, aliquid) is an Adjec- 
tive ; and formerly a most wicked one ; whose misinterpreta- 
tion caused more slaughter and pillage of mankind than all the 
other cheats together. 

F. — Something of this sort I can easily perceive ; but not to 
the extent you carry it. I see that those sham deities Fate and 
Destiny — aliquia Fatum, quelque chose Destinee — are merely 
the past participles of Fari and Destiner.^ 

^ [ " These two Princes beyng neighbours, the one at Milan the other 
at Parma, shewed smal frendshyp the one to the other. But Octavio 
was evermore wrong to the worse by many and sundiy spites." — It. 
AscJiains Letters, p. 12.] 

^ \KvpiaK-os, -ov, -01 : edifice, or sect, or clergy, &c.] 

^ [ " Quid enim aliud est fatum, quam quod de unoquoque nostrum 
Deus Fatus est ? " — Miniiclus Felix, Octavius. 

" Id actum est, mihi crede, ab illo, quisquis formator universi fuit ; 
sive ille Deus est potens omnium ; sive incorporalis Eatio, ingentium 
operum artifex ; sive divinus spiritus per omnia maxima ac minima 
sequali intentione diffusus ; sive fatum et immutabiUs caussarum inter se 
cohserentium Series." — Seneca Consolatio ad Helviam, edit. Lipsii, 4to. 
1652. p. 77. 

" On FATE alone man's happiness depends, 

To parts conceal' d fate's prying pow'r extends : 

And if our stars of their kind influence fail, 

The gifts of nature, what will they avail ! " 

Brydeti's Juvenal, Sat. 9. 
^' 'Tis FATE that flings the dice ; and, as she flings, 

Of kings makes pedants, and of pedants, kings." — Ibid. Sat. 7. 

" And think'st thou Jove himself with patience then 
Can hear a pray'r conderan'd by wicked men ? 
That, void of care, he lolls supine in state. 
And leaves his bus'ness to be done by fate ? " 

JDri/deji's translation of Pe)'sius, Sat. 2. 

'' E pure 

Trovasi ancor chi, per sottrarsi a' Numi, 
Porma un Nume del caso : e vuol ch'il mondo 
Da una mente immortal retto non sia." 

Metastasio, Ciro riconosciuto, att. 2. sc. 2. 

" I can giue no certaine iudgement, whether the aff'aires of mortall 
men are gouerncd by fate and imnuitable necessitie, ok liaue their 
course and change by chance and fortune." 

" Others arc of opinion thate fate and destiny may well stand with 
the course of our actions, yet nothing at all depend of the planets and 



CH. II.] OF ABSTRACTION. 315 

That Chance ^ {^' high Arbiter '^ as Milton calls him) and 
his twin-brother Accident^ are merely the participles of Es- 
cheoiVj CheoiVj and Cadere. And that to say — " It befell me by 
CHANCE^ or by accident/^ — is absurdly saying — " It fell by fall- 
ing." And that an incident, a case, an escheat, decay, are 
likewise participles of the same verb. 

I agree with you that providence, prudence, innocence, 
substance, and all the rest of that tribe of qualities (in Ence 
and Ance) are merely the Neuter plurals of the present parti- 
ciples of Videre, Nocere, Stare, &c. &c. 

That angel, saint, spirit are the past participles of ar/yeX- 
\ecvj Sanciri, Spirare.^ 



starves ; but proceed from a connexion of naturall causes as from their 
beginning." — Annales of Tacitus, translated by Greenwey. 1622. 6 booke. 
p. 128. 

*' Oh ! come spesso il mondo 
Nel giudicar delira, 
Perche gh eifetti ammira, 

Ma la cagion non sa. 
E chiama poi fortuna 
Quella cagion che ignora ; 
E il suo difetto adora 

Cangiato in Delta." — Metastasio, II Temjjio dell Mernita.] 
^ C11A.NCE — {Escheance). 

" The dale is go, the nightes chaunce 
Hath derked all the bright sonne." 

Gotoer, lib. 8. foi. 179. p. 1. col. 2. 

^ " Next hira, high Arbiter 

Chance governs all." — Paradise Lost, book 2. 

["Some think that chance rules all, that nature steers 
The moving seasons, and turns round the years." 

Juvenal, Sat. 13. ^y Creech. 

*' Sunt qui in roRTUNyE jam casibus omnia ponant, 
Et nullo credant mundum rectore moveri, 
Natura solvente vices et lucis et anni." — Juv. Sat. 13. 

" Queste gran maraviglie falsaraente 
Son state attribuite alia fortuna, 
Con dir, che in questa cosa ell' e potente 
Sopra quelle, che son sotto la lima." 

Orlando Innam,oralo (da Berni), cant. 8. st. 4.] 

^ i\\ the same manner Animus, Anima, Uvevfjia, and ^vx'7» ^^'^ ]>^'^'- 
ticiplcs. 

" Aniina (jst ab Anbnus. Animus vero est a Graico Ai/f/ioy, quod dici 
volunt quasi Af/xor, ab Ao), sivc Af/xt, quod est Ilj/ew : et Latinis a 



316 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

I see besides that adult/ apt/ and adept are the past parti- 
ciples of Adoleo and Apio. 

That CANT, CHAUNT, ACCENT, CANTO, CANTATA, are the past 
participles of Canere, Cantare and Chanter. 

That the Italian Cucolo, a cuckow, gives us the verb To 
Cucol, (without the terminating d,) as the common people 
rightly pronounce it, and as the verb was formerly and should 
still be written. 

" I am cuckolled and fool'd to boot too." 

B. and Fletcher, Women pleas' d. 
*' If he be married, may he dream he 's cucTcoVd^ 

Ibid. Loyal Subject. 

To Cucol J is, to do as the cuckow does : and Cucol-ed, CucoVd, 
Cucold, its past participle, means Cuckow-ed, i. e. Served as the 
cuckow serves other birds.^ 

spirandOy Spiritus. Imo et 'Pvx'? est a "i'v^ffl, quod Hesychius exponit 
Ili/eo). 

" Animam pro vento accipit Horat. 

* Impellunt Animce lintea Thraci£e.' 

" Pro Halitu accipit Titiniiis ; 

' Interea fcetida Anima nasum oppngnat.' 

"Et Plautus— Asin. act. 5. sc. 11. 

' Die, araabo, an foetet Anima uxoris tuse.' 

"A posteriori hac significatione interdum bene maleve animatus 
dicitur, cui Anima bene maleve olet. Sic sane interpretantur quidam 
illud Varronis, Bimargo : 

" Avi et atavi nostri, cum allium ac coepe eorum verba olerent, tamen 
optirae animati erant." — Vossii Etym. Lat. 

^ '■'■ Adolere proprie est crescere, ut scribit Servius ad EcL.viii. Unde 
et Adidtum pro Adoltum, sive Adolitum.^^ — Vossii Etym. Lat. 

^ " Apio, sive Apo, antiquis erat Adligo, sive vinculo comprehendo : 
prout scribit Festus in Apex. Servius ad x. Mn. Isidorus, lib. xix. cap. 
XXX. Confirmat et Glossarium Arabico-Latinum ; ubi legas — Apio, 
Ligo. Ab Apio quoque, Festo teste, Aptns is dicitur, qui convenienter 
alicui junctus est, &c. 

" Ab Apio est Apiscor : nam qu?e Apimus, id est, comprehendimus, ea 
Apiscimur. Ab Apisci, Adipisci, &c." — Fossii Etym. Lat. 

^ Nothing can be more unsatisfactory and insipid than tlie labours (for 
they laboured it) of Du Gauge, Mezerai, Spelman, and Menage, concern- 
ing this word. Chaucer's bantering etymology is far preferable. 

" that opprobrous name cokold ; 

Kansake yet we wolde if we might 
Of this worde the trewe ortograpliy, 
Tlic very disccnt and ethymology ; 



CH. II.] OP ABSTRACTION. 317 

A DATE is merely the participle Daturrij which was written by 
the Romans at the bottom of their Epistles. 

As DEBT [i. e. Debit] is the past participle of Debere ; so due 
is the past participle of Devoir, and value of Valoir. 

[" Like as (0 captaine) this farre seeing art 
Of lingring vertue best beseemeth you, 
So vigour of the hand and of the hart 
Of us is lookt, as debet by us dew." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, cant. 5. st. 6. translated by 
R. C. Esq. printed 1594.] 
Ditto (adopted by us together with the Italian method of 

The wel and ground e of the first inuencion 
To knowe the ortography we must deryue, 
Which is coke and cold, in composycion, 
By reason, as nyghe as I can contryue, 
Than howe it is written we knowe belyue. 
But yet lo, by what reason and grounde 
Was it of these two wordes compounde. 

" As of one cause to gyue very iudgement 
Themylogy let us first beholde, 
Eche letter an hole worde dothe represent, 
As c, put for colde, and o, for olde, 
K, is for knaue, thus diners men holde, 
The first parte of this name we haue founde, 
Let us ethymologise the seconde. 

" As the first finder mente I am sure 
C, for Calot, for of we haue o, 
L, for Leude, d, for Demeanure, 
The crafte of the enuentoui* ye may se, lo, 
Howe one name signyfyeth persons two, 
A colde olde Knaue, cokolde him selfe wening, 
And eke a Calot of leude demeanyng." 

Remedy e of Loue, fol. 341. p. 2. col. 1. 
Junius, Vossius and Skinner were equally wide of the mark. 
*'Inepte autem Celtoe, eosque imitati Belgse, cuculum vocant ilium 
qui, uxorem habens adulteram, alienos liberos enutrit pro suis : nam tales 
Currucas dicere debemus, ut patet ex natura utriusque avis, et contrario 
usu vocis cucULi apud Plautum." — Vossii Etym. Lat. 
" Hi plane confuderunt cuculum et Currucam'' — Junius. 
" Certum autem est nostrum cuckold, non a Cuculo ortum duxisse : 
tales enira non Cuculi sunt, sed Curruca : non sua ova aliis supponunt ; 
sed e contra, aliena sibi supposita incubant et fovent." — Skinner. 

The whole difficulty of the etymologists, and their imputation upon us 
of absurdity, are at once removed by observing, that, in BngUsh, we do 
not call them cuculi, but cuculati (if I may coin the word on this occa- 
sion), i. e. We call them not Cuckows but ciickowed. 



318 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Bookkeeping), ditty (in imitation of the Italian verses), ban- 

DITE, BANDETTO, BANDITTI, EDICT, VERDICT, INTERDICT, are past 

participles of Dicere and Dire. 

"No savage fierce, ba.ndite, or mountaneer 
Will dare to soil her virgin purity." — Comus, ver. 426. 

" A Roman sworder and bandetto slaue 
Murder'd sweet TuUy."— 2d Part oi Henry VI. 1st fol. p. 138. 

Alert (as well as Erect) is tlie past participle of Erigere, 
now in Italian Ergere : AlV erecta, AW ercta, AW erta. 

[" Rinaldo stava all' erta, attento e accorto." 

Orlando Innamorato {da Berni), lib. 1. cant. 5. st. 9. 

" Fra se pensando il modo e la maniera 
Di salir sopra al scoglio erto e villano." 

Ibid. lib. 1. cant. 5. st. 73. 
" Yeggonsi in varie parti a cento a cento 
Quei, clie per 1' alta disastrosa strada 
Salir r eccelso colle anno talento. 
La difficile impresa altri non bada. 
Ma tratto dal desio s' inoltra, e sale, 
Onde avvien poi clie vergognoso cada : 
Altri con forza al desiderio uguale 
Supera 1' erta." 

Metastasio, La Strada delta Gloria, edit. Parigi. 1781. 
vol. 8. p. 317. 

*' Tu rendi sol la maesta sicura 
Di sorte rea contro 1' ingiurie usate, 
Non le fosse profonde, o 1' erte mura." 
Metastasio. Edit. 1781. La Fubhlica Felicita, lorn. 9. p. 321.] 

" II palafren, ch'avea il demonio al fianco, 
Porto la spaventata Doralice, 
Che non pote arrestarla fiume, e manco 
Fossa, bosco, palude, erta., o pendice." 

Orlando FnrlosOy cant. 27. st. 5. 

" Tu vedrai prima a l' erta andare i fiumi, 
Cli' ad altri mai, ch' a te volga il pensiero." 

Ibid. cant. 33. st. 60. 

" Chi nv)stra il pie scoperto, e chi gambetta, 
Chi colle gambe all' erta e sotterrato." 

Morgante, cant. 19. st. 173. 



CH. II.] OP ABSTRACTION. 319 

" Or ritorniamo a Pagan, clii stupiti 
Per maraviglia tenean gli occhi all' erta." 

Morgante, cant. 24. st. 114. 
AlV erda (by a transposition of the aspirate) became the 
French AVlierte^ as it was formerly written ; and (by a total 
suppression of the aspirate) the modern French Alerte. 

S. Johnson says — '^ Alert, adj. [Alerte Fr. perhaps from 
Alacris ; but probably from A Vart, according to Art_, or rule.] 

^^1. In the military sense^ on guard, watchful, vigilant, ready 
at a call. 

^^%. In the common sense, brisk, pert, petulant, smart; 
implying some degree of censure and contempt. ^^ 

By what possible means can any one extract the smallest 
degree of censure or contempt from this word? Amyot, at 
least, had no such notion of it ; when he said — " C^est una 
helle et bonne chose que la prevoyance, et d^estre touiours A 
Vherte" [KaXov Be r) Trpovota Kat to aa<paX€<^.) most appositely 
translating acrcpaXe^;, i. e. not prostrate, not supine, by A Vherte, 
i. e. In an erect posture. 

See Morales de Plutarque, De Pesprit familier de Socrates. 
I see that post — aliquid PosiT-um (as well as its compounds 
Apposite, Opposite, Composite, Impost, Compost, Deposit, Depot, 
Repose, and Pause), however used in English, as substantive, 
adjective, or adverb. 

As A POST in the ground, 

A military post. 
To take post, 
A POST under government. 
The POST for letters. 
Post chaise or post horses. 
To travel post, 
is always merely the past participle of Ponere. And thus, in 
our present situation, intelligence of the landing of an enemy 
will probably be conveyed by post : for, whether positis equis, 
or positis hominibus, or positis ignibus, or positis telegraphs or 
beacons of any kind ; All will be by Posit or by post. 

I agree with Salmasius, Vossius, Ferrarius, and Skinner 
(though Menage feebly contests it), that poltroon and Paltry 
are likewise past participles. 

" lidem impcratores (scil. Valentinianus et Valens) statue- 



320 OP ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

runt flammis ultricibus comburendum eum, qui, ad fugienda 
sacramenta militi3e_, truncatione digitorum damnum corporis 
expetisset. Multi enim illo tempore, quia necessitate ad bellum 
cogebantur, prse ignavia sibi Pollices truncabant, ne militarent. 
Inde Pollice truncos hodieque pro ignavis et imbecillibus dici- 
mus; sed truncata voce poltrones/^ 

Similar times, similar practices. We too have many pol- 
troons in this country ; qui sacramenta militise fugiunt ; for 
want of rational motive, not want of courage. 

In October 1795,^ "One Samuel Caradise^ who had been 
committed to the house of correction in Kendal, and there 
confined as a vagabond untill put on board a King's ship, 
agreeable to the Late Act, sent for his Wife, the evening before 
his intended departure. He was in a Cell, and she spoke to 
him through the Iron Door. After which he put his hand 
underneath, and she with a mallet and chissel, concealed for the 
purpose, struck off a finger and thumb, to render him unfit for 
his Majesty's service.'^ ^ 

I see that close, a close, with its diminutive a closet, a 
CLAUSE, a recluse, a sluice, are past participles of Claudere 
and Clorre. 

[" The thirty horse should face the house on that side next Notting- 
ham ; and the foote should march a private way through the closings." 
■ — Life of Colonel HutcMnson, pag. 206. 

The Editor, in a note, says — " Vulg. Notts, closen."] 
" He rose fro deth to lyfe in his sepulture close." 

Lyfe of our Lady, by Lydgate, p. 59. 

^ [TheTiVwes.] 

^ There was some affection between this able bodied vagabond and his 
wife. — [Able bodied was the crime wliich by the operation of a Late Act, 
cast him into this Cell with the h'on door.) — To avoid separation they 
both subjected themselves to very severe treatment. Some lawyers main- 
tained that they were both liable to death, under the Coventry Act. The 
husband and wife would have thought it merciful 

'* To take them both, that it might neither wound." 
Such a sentence however, in such a case, has not yet, I believe, been 
put in execution. For a similar performance now, upon a husband in 
his Majesty's service — (I submit it to the Attorneys general) — might 
not a wife, by a. still Later Act, be condemned to death for this new 
method of seduction ? Or will a new Statute be necessary (it would 
soon be made, and may be expected) flammis ultricibus comburendum 
cum — et cam ? 



CH. II.] OF ABSTRACTION. 351 

" And whan the angell from her departed was, 
And she alone in her tabernacle, 
Eight as the sonne percssheth thorowe the glasse, 
Thorowe the cristall, berall, or spectacle, 
W'itliout harme, right so by myracle 
Into her closet the fathers sapyence 
Entred is, withouten vyolence 
Or any wemme unto her maydenhede 
On any syde, in party or in all." 

Lyfe of our Lady, by Lydgate, p. 54. 

Duct, aqueduct, conduct, produce, product, conduit, 
of Ducere and Conduire. 

Fact, effect, defect, prefect, perfect, fit, a fit, feat, a 

FEAT, defeat, COUNTERFEIT, SURFEIT, FORFEIT, BENEFIT, PROFIT, 

of Facere and Faire. 

" Fay the withoute the feate is right nothing worth." 

Vision of F. Plo2i(/hman, pass. 2. fol. 7. p. 2. 

Minute and a minute, of Minuere. 

There was antiently in our language a minute of money, as 
well as a minute of time ; and its value was half a Farthing. 

" Ihesu sittinge agens the tresorie bihelde hou the cumpany 
castide money in to the tresorie, and many riche men castiden 
manye thingis : sotheli whanne o pore widewe hadde come, she 
sente twey mynutis, that is, a Fer thing" — Mar^k xii. 42. 

" Tpejen pcycas, 'Sat ij', peop^unj pemnjep.^' 

" Duo stycce, id est, quadrans denarii." 

So that a farthing is also a participle, and means merely 
Fourthing, or dividing into four parts. ^ 

And, as there was a minute of money as well as a minute of 
time; so was there also a farthing of land, as well as a 
farthing of money. 

In our antient Law books a Farding-deale of land means the 
fourth part of an acre. "Whose rent was, in Richard the second's 
time, so restrained, that for a Farding-deale of land they paid 
no more than one penny. — Walsingham, p. 270. 

Promise, compromise, committee, premisses, remiss, sur- 
mise, demise, of Mittere. 



^ [In the Swedish language Fjerdeilel or "Fjerding, means a quarter or 
a fourth part ; viz. of a pound, of an liour, of a mile, &c.] 

Y 



322 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART IT. 

An EPISTLE, an apostle and a pore^ of Eiria-reXkoXj Atto- 
areWo) and TletpM. 

Sect and insect^ of Secare ; as tome and atom of Tefivco. 

Point (formerly Poind) , of Pungere. 

Prompt^ exempt, of Promere, Eooimere, 

Rate, of Reor. 

Remorse, morsel, oi Mordere. 

Alley, entry, monster, muster {Mosira), army {Armata, 
Armee), jury, jurat, levy, levee, ally, alliance, liege 
and ALLEGIANCE ; as well as junto, manifesto, incognito, 
PUNTO, proviso, mezzotinto, COMRADE {Camerata) , favourite, 
[Favorito), and vista, declare themselves at first sight. 

So tract, extract, contract, abstract, track, trace, 
TRAIT (formerly Traict), portrait (formerly Pourtraict) , treat, 
treaty, retreat, estreat, are the participles of Trahere and 
Traire. 

Pulse, impulse, appulse, repulse, of Pellere. Price, 
prize, culprit, enterprize, mainprize,. reprize, surprise, 
reprieve, oi Prendre. 

Event, convent, advent, venue, avenue, revenue, cove- 
nant, of Venire and Venir. 

Saute, assault, assailant, insult, result, somerset, of 
Salire. 

" put his folke to flyglit, 

And at a saute he wan the cyte after." — Knygldes Tale. 

[ " Let him (quoth Godfrey) fetch his sault, 

And brawles beare other where ; nor I intend. 
That you more seede here of new quarrels sow. 
Ah no (for-god) let old strifes also go." 

Godfrey of Bidloigne, cant. 5. st. 59. translated by 
B. C. Esq. 1594.] 

Soprasalto, called also Salto mortale : i. e. {'' voltando la 
persona sotto sopra senza toccar terra colle mani, o con altro.^' 
Delia Crusca.) which the French have corrupted to Soubresault, 
and the English to Sumersault, Somersalt, Summersaut, and 
then to Somerset. 

" What a somersalt, 



When the chair fel, she fetch'd, with her heels upward." 

B. and Fletcher. Tamer tam^d. 



CH. II.] OF ABSTRACTION. 323 

" Here when the labouring fish doth at the foot arrive, 
And find that by his strength but vainly he doth strive, 
His tail takes in his teeth, and bending like a bow 
That 's to the compass drawn, aloft himself doth throw : 
Then springing at his height, as doth a little wand, 
That bended end to end, and flirted from the hand, 
Pai' off itself doth cast, so doth the salmon vaut. 
And, if at first he fail, his second summersaut 
He instantly assays." Foly-olhion, song 6. 

" Now I will only make him break his neck in doing a someeset, and 
that 's all the revenge I mean to take of him." 

B. and Metcker. Fair Maid of the Inn. 

[" He was the first that more desir'd to haue 
One then another ; first that ere did craue 
Loue by mute signes, and had no power to speake ; 
First that could make Loue faces, or could do 
The valters sombersalts, or us'd to wooe 
With hoiting gambols, his owne bones to breake 
To make his mistresse merry." — JDr. Donne, p. 24.] 

Quest, inquest, request, conquest, acquest, exquisite, 
requisite, perquisite, of Qucerere. 

Suit, sute, suite, pursuit, lawsuit, of Suivi^e. 

Strict, district, strait, streights, street, restraint, 
constraint, of Stringere. 

Tent, intent, extent, portent, subtense, intense, of 
Tendere. 

Succinct, precinct, of Cingere. 

Verse, reverse, converse, universe, traverse, averse, 
adverse, inverse, perverse, transverse, divers, diverse, 
CONVERT, of Vertere. 

Ballad, ballet, of Ballare} 

Access, recess, excess, process, success, precedent, of 
Cedere. 

View, review, interview, counterview, purview, survey, 
of Voir. 

Collect, elect, select, intellect, neglect, oi Legere. 

Lash (French Lasche) of a whip, i. e. that part of it which is 



Le Ballate dette cosi, perclie si cantavauo a Ballo.'" 

Bembo. Volg. Ling., lib. 2. p. 74. Edit. Venez. 1729. 

y 2 



334 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

let loose J let go, cast outj thrown out ; the past participle of Fr, 
LascheTj Ital. Lasciare. 

*' There was dayly pilled fro good men and honest, gret substaunce of 
goodes to be lashed oute among unthriftes." 

Sir T. Mo7'e, 'BicTiarde the tliirde, p. 62. 
[" Tindall sawe well also that any thing that his maister Martin 
Luther layde and lashed out against the kinges hyghnes, &c." 

Sir T. More's WorJces, p. 513. 

" As among the seuerer sort Vitellius was thought base and demisse, 

so his fauourers termed it curtesie and godnesse ; because without 

measure or iudgement he gaue out his owne, lasht out other mens, 

construing vices for vertues." 

Historie of Corn. Tacitus, translated by Green wey, p. 82.] 

To these may be added 

QuiTj QUITE, QUITTANCE. 

Poise, (peser).^ 

Spouse, response. 

Expert. 

Merit. 

Ealse, Fault (fallito), default. 

Fruit (fruict). 

Relique, relict, derelict. 

Vow, vote, devout. 

Demur (demeurer). 

Tally. 

Aspect, respect, prospect, circumspect, retrospect. 

Suspense. 

Correct, direct, insurgent. 

Tenet, content, contents, continent, detinue (Writ of), 

RETINUE. 



[" I gesse that from another head there came 

The cause of all these stops, and concord torne. 

Namely, th' authoritie in many wits. 

And many men that equall peyzed sits." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, translated by E. C. 1594. 
" Reco ad un' altra originaria fonte 

La cagion d' ogni indugio, e d' ogni lite, 

A quella autorita, che in molti, e vari 

D' opinion, quasi libratai c pari." 

Gierusalemme liberata, cant. 1.] 



ch. ii.] of abstraction. . 325 

Crucifix^ affix, prefix. 

Decree, discreet, secret. 

Lapse, relapse. 

Script,^ manuscript, rescript, prescript, exscript, 
transcript. 

Conscript, postscript, proscript, nondescript. 

Use, misuse, disuse, abuse. 

Course, discourse, concourse, recourse, inter- 
course. 

Conceit, deceit, receipt, precept. 

Finite, infinite, definite, fine. 

Flux, afflux, influx, conflux, superflux, reflux. 

Subject, object, abject, project, traject. 

Degree, graduate, ingress, regress, egress, pro- 
gress. 

Legate, delegate, legacy. 

Instinct, distinct, extinct. 

Advocate. 

Visit. 

Convict. 

Abstruse. 

Intrigue, intricate. . 

Transit, exit, circuit, issue. (Fr. Issir. Ital. Escire, 
Lat. Exire,) 

Roast. 

Toast. 

Statute, institute, destitute, • prostitute, substi- 
tute. 

Tint, taint. 

Text, context, pretext. 

Trite, contrite. 

Tact, contact. 

Tacit. 

Illicit. 

Sense, nonsense, assent, dissent, consent. 

Assize, assizes. 

Excise,* concise, precise. 

^ " Do you sec this sonnet, this loving script ? " 

B. and Fletcher ^ A Wife for a Moneili. 
^ [" Surely tliis charge which I put upon them, I know to bee so 



326 . OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

RePUTE_, DISPUTE. 
PrESS^ IMPRESS, EXPRESS. 

Esteem. . 

Private, privy. 

Import, export, report, transport, support. 

Polite. 

Applause. 

expence, recompence. 

Plea. 

Residue. 

E-EMNANT. '* 

Pact, compact, peace. 

Appetite. 

Repast. 

Immense. 

Quadrant. 

Jubilee. 

Fosse. 

Conflict. 

Credit, credence, miscreant. 

Debate, combat. 

Exact. 

All the French participles in ee ; as mortgagee, assignee,, 
committee, &c*. 

And, besides these which I have thus taken at random, a 
great multitude of others ; which if I had sworn to try your 
patience to the utmost, I would go on to enumerate. 



CHAPTER III. 

the same subject continued. 

H. — It gives me pleasure that you have so far noticed this, in 
the words which we have adopted from the Greek, Latin, 



reasonable, as that it will not much be felt ; for the Port townes that 
have benefit of shipping may cut it easily off their trading, and Inland 
townes of their corne and cattle ; as wee see all the townes of the Low- 
Countryes doc cut upon themselves an excise of all things towards the 
maintenance of the warre that is made in their behalfe." — Sjienser's Fiew 
ofilie Stale nf Ireland, Todd's edit. 1805. p. 472.1 



CH. III.] OF ABSTRACTION. 327 

Italian and French : for you will be inclined the more readily 
to concur with me^ that the same thing is equally observable 
in those words which are original in our own language. 
Thus— 

Brand — in all its uses_, whether Fire-brand, or a brand of 
infamy (i. e. ^tiyma, itself a 'participle of ^rtjo)) or ^awc?-neWj 
(i. e. newly burned^ is merely the past participle Bren-ed, 
Bren'd,^ of the verb To Bren ; which we now write To Burn. 

Sir T. More wrote the word indiflferently Bren and Burn. — 
" At St. Waleries here in Picardy there is a faire abbey, 
where saint Walery was monke. And upon a furlonge of, or 
two, up in a wood is there a chapel, in which the saint is 
specially sought unto for the Stone ; not only in those partyes, 
but also out of England. Now was there a yonge gentilman 
which had maried a marchantes wife ; and having a littel 
wanton money, which hym thought brenned out the bottom 
of hys purs, in the firste yere of hys wedding toke hys wife 
with hym and went ouer the sea for none other erand, but to 
se Flaunders and France, and ryde out one somer in those 
countrees. And hauing one in hys company that tolde by the 
waye many straunge thinges of the pilgrimage, he thought he 
wold go somewhat out of his way, either to se it, if it were 
trew, or laughe at his man if he founde it false; as he veryly 
thought he should have done in dede. But when they came 
in to the chapell they founde it all trewe. And to beholde 
they founde it fonder than he had tolde. For like as in other 
pilgrimages ye se hanged up legges of waxe or armes or suclie 
other partes, so was in that chapell al theyr offringes that 
honge aboute the walles, none other thinge but mens gere and 
womans gere made in waxe. Then was there besides these, 
two rounde ringes of siluer, the one much larger than the 
other: through which euery man did put his prevy membres 
at the aulters eude.^ Not euery e man thorough bothe, but 

^ [ " And blow the fire which them to ashes brent." 

Taerie Queene, booke 1. cant. 9. st. 10.] 

^ [ *' The author reports that, in crossing the forests of Westrogothia 
on horseback, they stopped a while at Lincopen, to look upon a column, 
of stone, wherein there was a hole, designed for a nise which cannot 
decently be expressed in vulgar language ; but here is the Latin of it — 
* Vestrogoticis silvis cquitantes inducti, Lincopiae, ob loci religionem 



328 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

some thorough the one and some thorough the other. Then was 
there yet a monke standing at the aulter that holowed cer- 
teine thredes of Venice golde : and them he deliuered to the 
pilgrimes^ teching them in what wise themselfe or theyr 
frendes should use those thredes agaynst the Stone: that 
they should knitte it aboute their gere, and say I cannot tel 
you what praiers. As this gentylman and his wife wer kneling 
in the chapel^ there came a good sadde woman to him, shewing 
him that one speciall poincte used in the pilgrimage and the 
surest against the Stone, she wist nere whither he were yet 
advertised of. Which if it were done she durst laye her lyfe, he 
shoulde neuer haue the Stone in his life. And that was, she 
would haue the length of his gere, and that should she make in 
a waxe candel whiche should bren up in the chapell, and 
certaine praiers shoulde ther be sayd the while. And thys 
was against the Stone the very shots anker. Whan he had 
hard her (and he was one that in earnest fered the Stone) he 
went and askid his wife counsel. But she like a good faithfull 
christen woman loued no suche supersticions. She could abide 
the remenant wel ynough. But when she herde ones of bren- 
NiNG up the candell, she knit the browes, and earnestly blessing 
her : — Beware in the Tertue of God what ye do, quod she, 
BuRNE up, quoth-a ! Marry, God forbede. It would waste up 
your gere, upon paine of my life. I praie you beware of such 
witchcraft.'^ — Sir Thomas Morels Workes. A Dialogue made in 
the yere 1528, p. 195. 

Odd — Is the participle Owed, Oiv^d. Thus, when we are 
counting by couples or by pairs ; we say — One pair, two pairs, 
&c. and one Owed, Ow^d, to. make up another pair. It has 
the same meaning when we say — An odd man, or an odd 
action : it still relates to pairing ; and we mean — without a 
fellow, unmatched, not such another, one Owed to make up a 
couple.^ 

noil omittendae, tantillum siibstitimus: ibi cippiis lapideus, pertusus, 
cxplorandse maritorum raembrositati : qui pares forainini, approbantur, 
ira pares excluduntiir connubiali tovo : inde matrimonia aut slant aut 
cadiint, pro modulo peculii.' " — Bayle's Dictionary, 2d edit. vol. 2. 
Article Francis Blondel, p. 30. Note A.] 

^ {Odds and ends ; probably ojib anb eiibe, ' beginning and end : ' see 
Cccdinon, 225, 30. Thorpe's Edition. — Ed.] 



CH. III.] OF ABSTRACTION. 339 

" So tbou that hast thy loue sette unto God, 
In thy remembraunce this emprint and graue, 
As he in soueraine dignitie is odde, 
So will he in loue no parting felowes haue." 

Sir T. More' 8 Workes, Rules of Ficus, p. 28. 
Head — Is Heaved, Heav'd, the past participle of the verb 
To Heave: (As the Anglo-Saxon J^eajzob was the past par- 
ticiple of y^eaysin) meaning that part — (of the body — or^ any- 
thing else) which is Heav'd, raised, or lifted up, above the 
rest.^ 

In Edward the third^s time, it was written Heved. 

" And I say an other strong aungel comyng down fro Heuene, keuerid 
or clothid with a cloude, and the reyn bow in his Heued.'' — A^ocalyjps., 
chap. 10. (verse 1.) 

" The Heuedes of holy churche, and they holy were, 
Christe caUeth hem salt." 

• Vision of JP. Ploughman, fol. 84. p. 1. 
" Persons and priests that Heiieds of holy kyrke ben." 

Ibid, passus 16. fol. 84. p. 2. 

Wild — ^is Willed, WilVd (or self-willed) in opposition to 
those (whether men or beasts) who are tamed or subdued (by 
reason or otherwise) to the will of others or of Societies. 
Flood — is Flowed, Flowed. 

" And sens it rayned, and al was in a Flode." 

Troylus, boke 3. fol. 176. p. 1. col. 1. 

Loud — is the past participle of the verb To Low, or To 
Bellow (J^lopan, Behlopan) Lowed, Low'd. To Bellow, (i. e. To 
Be-low) differs no otherwise from To Low, than as Besprinkle 
differs from Sprinkle, &c. What we now write loud, was 
formerly, and more properly, written low^d. 

Skinner mistakingly says — ^' lowd, melius loud, ab A. S. 
J^lub.^^ — Not perceiving that )^lub is the past participle of 
J>lopan : and Skinner's authority perhaps contributed to mislead 
those who followed him, to alter the s'pelling to loud. 
" And with low'd larums welcome them to Rome." 

Tit. Adro7i. M. l.p. 32. 
" Who calls so low'd ? " — Borneo and Juliet, p. 74. 



* [ " The first, to which wc nigli approched, was 
An hifjh headland thrust far into the sea." 

Spe?iser, Colin Clouts come home again.] 



330 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II, 

*' The large Achilles (on his prest-bed lolling) 
From his deepe chest laughes out a lowd applause." 

Troylus and Cressida. 

" Honor, loiie, obedience, troopes of friends, 

I must not looke to haue ; but, in their stead. 
Curses, not lowd, but deepe." — Macbeth, p. 149. 

" Why, what would you ? 

Make me a willow cabane at your gate, 

Write loyall cantons of contemned loue. 

And sing them lowd euen in the dead of night : 

Hollow your name to the reuerberate hilles, 

And make the babling gossip of the aire 

Cry o\xt—Olmvd:'—Twelfe Night, p. 259. 

" Do but start 

An eccho with the clamor of thy drumms. 
And euen at hand a drumme is readie brac'd 
That shall reuerberate all as lowd as thine. 
Sound but another, and another shall 
(As lowd as thine) rattle the welkin's eare 
And mocke the depe-mouth'd thunder." — King Johi, p. 20. 
" That she may boast, she hath beheld the man 
Whose glory fills the world with lowd report." 

1st part of Henry VI. p. 102. 
[ " Of love and lustihead tho maist thou sing, 

And carrol lowde, and leade the millers rounde." 

Shepheard's Calender, Octohei\ 
" If these reedes sing my shame so lowd, will men whisper it softly ? " 
— Midas (by Lily), act 5. sc. 1. 

" The reason why we are so often lowder than the players, is, 
because we think we speak more wit ; nay so much, that we find fault 
even with their bawdy upon the stage, whilst we talk nothing else in 
the Pit as lowd." — Wycherley, Country Wife, act 3. sc. 1. edit. 4to. 
1675. 

" The governor, fearing his enemies might not beare such testimonies 
of love to him without griefe, sent into the towne to desire them to 
forbeare their kind intentions of giving him so l»wd a wellcome." — Life 
of Colonel Hutchinson, p. 237.] 

Shred") -—Each of tliem the past participle of the verb 
Sherd j j'cypan, To Sheer, or to cut oft': thus, Shered, Shared : 
Shelved, Sher^d. 

Field. — This word, by Alfred, Gower, Chaucer, &c., was 
always written }:elh, Feld. It is merely the past participle 
Felled, FelVd, of the verb To Fell (}:iollau, be}:cellaii) ; 



CH. 



III.] . OF, ABSTRACTION. 33] 



and is so universally written Feld by all our old authors^ that 
I should be ashamed to produce you many instances. Pield- 
land is opposed to Wood-land ; and means — Land where the 
trees have been Felled. 

" In woodes, and in feldes eke, 
Thus robbery goth to seke 
Where as he maie his purchas finde, 
And robbeth mens goodes aboute 
In woode and felde, where he goth oute." 

Gotcer, fol. 116. p. 2. col. 2. 
" In woode, in felde, or in citee. 
Shall no man stele in no wise." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 122. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Maple, thorne, beche, ewe, hasel, whipulere, 
Howe they were felde shal not be told for me." 

Chance?', Knyglites Tale, p. 2. col. 2. 
" My blysse and my myrthe arne felde, sickenesse and sorowe ben 
alwaye redy." — Testament of Loue, boke 1. fol. 306. p. 2. col. 1. 

In the collateral languages, the German_, the Dutch, the 
Danish and the Swedish, you will find the same correspond- 
ence between the equivalent verb and the supposed sub- 
stantive.-^ 

German Fellen — Feld. 
Dutch Vellen — Veld. 
Danish Fcelder — Felt. 
Swedish Falla — Felt. 
Cud. — To chew the cud, i. e. To chew the Chewed. This 
change of pronunciation, and consequently of Avriting, from ch 
to K and from k to ch, is very common and frequent in our 
language ; and you will have more than one occasion hereafter 
to notice what obscurity, difficulties and errors it has caused to 
our etymologists. 

[" In some coole shadow from the scorching heat, 
The whiles his flock their chawed cuds do eate." 

Spenser, Virgils Gnat. 

P Meidinger connects Jield with the Swedish Ji(Eld, Isl. Jicell, a moun- 
tain side, also "portio agri ; " see Ihre. Thus in the north of England 
they say " the cattle are in the upper, or lower, fells." In this view, 
field might be used as distinguished from vieadow. The words, if not 
of the same origin, seem at least to have been confounded : and Henry 
of Huntingdon, iu his version of the Victory of Athelstan, renders pelb 
bennabe by " coUes rcsonucrunt." — Ed.] 



333 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

A QUiD_, e. g. of Tobacco, the same as cud.] 
Dastard — i. e. TerrituSj the past participle of bajrpijan, 
abaj'tpijan, Terrere. Dastrigedj Dastriyed, Dasiriedj Dastredj 
Dastr'd. 

Coward — i. e. Cowred, Cowered, Cowered. One who has 
cowered before an enemy. It is of the same import as Supplex. 
" lUe humilis Supjplexque, oculos dextramqiie precantem 
Protendens, — Vicisti, et victum tendere palmas 
Ausonii videre." 
Supplex, i. e. Suh-plicans, SuppUcans, Suppliers, SuppUx. So 
Suppliant and Supple, i. e. Sous-pliant. 

Coward' is the past participle of the verb To Cowre or To 
Cower ; a word formerly in common use. 
" Her heed loueth all honour 
And to be worshypped in worde and dede; 
Kynges mote to hem knele and cowre." 

Chaucer, Flotvmans Tale, part 1. fol. 94. p. 1. c. 3. 
" And she was put, that I of talke, 
Ferre fro these other, up in an halke ; 
There lurked, and there coured she." 

Bomaunt of the Rose, fol. 122. p. 1. col. 1. 
"Winter with his rough winds and blasts causeth a lusty man and 
woman to coure and sit by the fire.'* — Hist, of Prince Arthur, 3d part, 
chap. 142. 

" They spake all with one voice, Sir Launcelot, for Christs sake let us 
ride out with Sir Galihud, for we beene neuer wont to coure in castels 
nor in townes." — Ibid. 3d part, chap. 160. 

" They cow'r so o'er the coles, their eies be bler'd with smooke." — 
Gammer Gurton's Needle. 

" The king is served with great state. His noblemen never look him 
in the face, but sit cowring upon their buttocks, with their elbows upon 
their knees, and their hands before their faces ; nor dare lift up their 
eyes, until his majesty commands them." — Voyacje to Benin, by Thomas 
Windham,^ 1553. HaUuyt, vol. 2. 

" The splitting rockes cowr'd in the sinking sands, 
And would not dash me with their ragged sides." 

2d Part Henry VI. p. 134. 
"Mistress, do you know the French knight that cowers i' the 
hams ? " — Fericles, act 4. sc. 4. 

^ This Thomas Windham was a Norfolk gentleman : and a curious 
account is given in this voyage of his usurping and cruel conduct, and 
of his mean, violent, selfish and tyrannical character. 



CH. Til.] OF ABSTRACTION. 333 

" Co WRING and quaking at a conqu'ror's sword, 
But lofty to a lawful prince restor'd." 

Dryden^ Absalom and AchitopJiel, 

[" He in his chariot with his body bent 

Sat cow'riyig low." Cowper's Iliad, vol. 2. p. 143. book xvi. • 

*' As thus he spake, each bird and beast behold 
Approaching two and two ] these co wring low 
With blandishment, each bird stoop'd on his wing." 

Paradise Lost, book 8. 
" You durst not meet in temples 
T' invoke the gods for aid, the proudest he 
Who leads you now,- then cowr'd, like a dar'd lark." 

Dry dell's (Edipus, act 1. sc. 1.] 

M. lault (Art. couard) repeats much childishness of the 
French etymologists concerning this word, which I will spare 
you. 

" CoDARDO, says Menage, Da Coda, Codarus, Codardus : quia 
post principia lateat, et in extrema acie, quse veluti Cauda 
agminis est, dice il S'^ Ferrari." 

" Dalla Coda che fra le gambe portano i cani paurosi ; dicono 
gli altri." 

Junius thinks it is '^ cow-herd, Bubulcus." 

Some will have it " cow-heart, or Cow-hearted,^' 

Skinner leaves us to choose amongst 

1. Cauda — "Chi a tutto il suo ardire nella Coda: et nos 
dicimus — He has his heart in his heels : — vel q. d. ampla Cauda 
prseditus ; quod physiognomis timiditatis signum est : vel q. d. 
qui Caudam crebro ostendit.'' 

2. ''Cow-herd:' 

3. " Sin malis a vernacula origine pet ere, a nostro Cow et 
Germ. Aerd, Ard. natura. — q. d. Indole seu ingenio vaccino 
prseditus : nihil enim vacca timidius." 

4. " Ab Hisp. Cueva, antrum, specus : quia sc. pusillanimus 
Latibula quserit. Cueva autem, satis manifeste, a Lat. Cava, 
pro Caverna, defluxit." 

Mr. Tyrwhitt says — " I think the opinion of Twysden and 
Somner much the most probable, who derive it from the Barb. 
Lat. Culum vertere ; to turn tail, or run away. See Du 
Cange, in v. Culverta, and Culvertagium. Culvert (as it 



334 OF. ABSTRACTION. [PART IT. 

is written in tlie oldest and best Frencli mss. that I have seen) 
might easily be corrupted, according to the French mode of 
pronunciation, into couart and couard.^-' 

Blind. — Blined, Blin^d, is the past participle of the old 
. English verb To Blin (A. S. Blmnan) To Stop.^ 

" So may they eke her prayer blynne 
Whyle that they werke her mete to wynne." 

Rom. of the Bose, fol. 151. p. 2. col. 2. 

" Easy syghes, suche as ben, to lylce 

That shewed his affection withinne, 

Of suche syghes coulde he not blynne." 

Tfoylus, boke 3. fol. 179. p. 2. col. 2. 

" Ye that list of your palyardry neuer blyn." 

Douglas. Prol. to Booke 4. p. 96. 

" He sent them worde he should not blyn tyll he had destroyed 
them." — Fabian, p. 152. 

" My teares shall neuer blin 
To moist the earth in such degree 
That I may drowne therein." 

Songes and Sonets by the Earle of Surrey, &c. fol. 72. p. 2. 

In the French tongue they use Borgne and Aveugle ; but in 
order to make the same distinction we are compelled to say — 
Blind of one eye [stopped of one eye) or blind of both eyes, or 
totally BLIND, i. e. the sight totally stopped. 

In this sense, I suppose, the word Stopped is used in Beau- 
mont and Fletcher's Pilgrim. 

" Do you blush at this, in such as are meer rudeness, 
That have stopt souls, that never knew things gentle ? 
And dare you glorifie worse in yourself ? " 

Bread — is the past participle of the verb To Bray, (French 
Broyerj) i. e. To pound, or To beat to pieces : and the subau- 
ditum (in our present use of the word bread) is Corn, or 
Grain, or any other similar substances, such as Chestnuts, 



^ [" And Sisyphus an huge round stone did reele 
Against an hill, ne might from labour lin." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 5. st. 35.] 
[By the addition of this example, Mr. Tooke doubtless considered lin 
as connected with Blinnan, from which Skinner derives it. — Ed.] 



CH. 



III.] OF ABSTRACTION. 335 



Acorns, &c. or any other Substitutes'^ wMcli our blessed minis- 
ters may appoint for us in this blessed reign. 

To Bray, though now obsolete, was formerly very common in 
our language. 

" And whan lie comet therat 

And sigh his doughter, he to-BRAiDE 
His clothes, and wepende he saide." 

Gower, lib. 4. fol. 71. p. 3. col. 1. 

" Take camomel &c. beaye them together Sec." 

" Take of the bloudestone &c. beate and braye all these together &c." 
—Byrth of Mankpide, fol. 34. p. 1. fol. 36. p. 2. 

" The secies (of sorrell) braied and drunke with wine and water is 
veiy holsome agaynst the colyke." 

" What auncient physition is there, that in his workes commendeth not 
ptysane, whiche is none other than pure barley, beaied in a mortar, and 
sodden in water?" 

"The sedes of melons brayed kc'^—Castel of Hdth, fol. 37. fol. 34. 
fol. 81. 

"I, now it heats. Stand, father. 
Pound him to dust. 

Nay, if he take you in hand. Sir, with an argument. 
He '11 bray you in a mortar. — Pray you, Sir, stay. 
Eather than I 'U be brayed. Sir, I '11 believe." — AlcJiemist. 



^ Substitute is in England the natural offspring of Prostitute. In con- 
sequence of virtual being substitute for real representation ; we have innu- 
merable commissioners of different descriptions substitute for our antient 
Juries : Paper substitute for money : Martial Law substitute for the 
antient law of the land : Substitutes for the Militia, for an army of 
Keserve, for Quota-men. But the worst of all these Substitutes (and 
I fear its speedy recurrence) is a Substitute for Bread ; the harbinger 
of wide-spreading putrefaction, disease, and cruel death. It was at- 
tempted not long since (by those who should least have done it) to blast 
the character of my excellent friend the late Dr. Addington, by (falsely, 
as I believe) adducing his authority to prove that Bran was more nutri- 
tive than Meal : I take this opportunity to rescue his memory from that 
disgrace ; by asserting that he well knew that — " Bread of fine flour of 
wheat, having no leaven, is slow of digestion and makes slimy humours, 
but it nourishes much. If it be leavened, it digests sooner. Bread, 
having much Bran, fills the belly with excrements, and nourishes little or 
nothing, but shortly descends from the Stomach, &c." 

And this same doctrine will every intelligent medical man now de- 
clare ; unless he shall chuse to substitute his interest for his character and 
conscience. 



336 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" Thou hast made me mad : and I will beat thee dead. 
Then bray thee in a mortar, and new mold thee." 

" I will rectifie and redeem eithers proper inclination, 
Or BRAY 'em in a morter, and new mold 'em." 

B. and Fletcher'' s Martial Maid. 

Sir John Davies (an Attorney General^ whom Messrs. Pitt 
and Dundas have evidently consulted) in a little treatise called 
— '' A Discoverie of the true causes ^c." — speaking of Ireland^ 



*' Whereupon the multitude, who ever loved to bee folio u^ers of such 
as could master and defend them, admyring the power of the crowne 
of England, being brai'd (as it were) in a mortar, with the sword, 
famine, and pestilence altogether, submitted themselves to the English 
government." 

F. — Thus it is always with you etymologists. Whilst you 
chuse your own instances^ your explanations run upon all 
fours; but they limp most miserably, when others quote the 
passages for you. 

H. — I can only give such instances as occur to me. I wish 
others were to furnish them : and the more hostile they were_, 
the better I should be pleased. 

F. — What say you then to this passage in All ^s well that 
ends well? 

" Since Erenchmen are so braide, 

Marry that will, I live and die a maid." 

Dr. Johnson, Mr. Steevens, and Mr. Malone, are all agreed, 
that — " braid signifies crafty or deceitfullJ' 

H. — I wish you had separated Mr. Steevens (for he has really 
done some good service) from the names of such (commentators 
I cannot call them) as Johnson and Malone. I think however 
that, upon a little reflection, you will have no difficulty to agree 
with me, that braide has here the same meauing that it has in 
the Proverbs J chap. 27. ver. 20. " Though thou shouldest bray 
a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his 
foolishness depart from him.'^ 

The expression here alludes to this Proverb : — Diana does 
not confine herself merely to his craft or deceit ; but includes 
also all the other bad qualities of which she supposes Bertram 



CH. III.] OF ABSTRACTION. 337 

to be compounded ; and which would not depart from him, 
though BRAYED in a mortar. 

F, — By the words which you have attempted to explain, 
Brand, Odd, Head, Wild, Flood, Loud, Shred, Sherd, Field, 
Cud, Dastard, Coward, Blind and Bread, you seem to have 
been led to these conjectures by the participial termination ed 
or ^D. I suppose therefore that the word fiend, which you 
lately mentioned, is also a past participle. 

H. — No. It is (what I must in conformity with custom call) 
a present participle ; anb, for which we now use ing, was in 
Anglo-Saxon the termination of the participle present : and 

Fiend — i. e. frl^VNcVS, panb, the present participle of 
J^I/V^'^5 fiaji, To Hate^ means (subaudi Some one, Any one) 
Hating. In the same manner. 

Friend — i. e. ppianb, jzpeonb, the present participle of jipian, 
ppeon, To Love, means (subaudi Any one. Some one) 
Loving} 

" For he no more than the fende 
Unto none other man is frende 
But all toward hym selfe alone." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 113. p. 2. col. 1. 

F. — Why do you say that, in conformity with custom, you 
must call it a present participle ? 

H. — Because I do not allow that there are any present par- 
ticiples, or any present tense of the verb. But we cannot 

* [Spa oyx j^pa bi pojileron ^one hpienban Gob ^onne pujibon hi je- 
hejigobe anb ro hoj-pe jebonne pjiam liae^enura leobura ^e him abutan 
eapbobon. Gpt: ^onne hi clipobon on eofinojr'c "co Gobe niib j^o^jie 
baebbore ^onne j^eiibe he him jzulrum ^u/ih j-iimne beman ^e pi^jf etre 
heojia reONDUCD anb hi ali^be op heojia YRCDDe.— ^i7/nc. de Veteri 
Tcstameuto, p. 12. L'Isle's Momiuients, 4to. 1638. 

TCnbhe beraehtre hig onhse^enjia hanbiim. anb heojia FYND j'o^lice: 
hsepbon heojia jepealb. anb hig j^pi^e ge biiehron ^a bejiienblica 
FYND.— M p. 23.] 

^ [The following is the foolish derivation of Menage, which he spells 
ill to get nearer to his etymology : — " Friant de frigente, ablatif de 
frigens, participe de frigere, — Charles de Boiivelles : Friant ; id est, 
delicatu's ; vel incertse originis est, vel dictus a verbo F?igo,frigis: a quo 
FrixurcB, ciborum deliciae : quod ejusraodi frixuras is amet quem vulgus 
friant appellat." 

It is the same Anglo-Saxon ppianb. 

See also Johnson's fooHsh derivation of Fr'mul from the Dutch.] 



338 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

enter into that question now. A proper time will arrive for it. 
Nor would I meddle with it at all ; but that some foolish meta- 
physics depend upon it. 

F. — There is a word in Shakespeare^ ending with a d, which 
has exceedingly troubled all his editors and commentators. I 
wish much to know whether your method will help us on this 
occasion. In Troylus and Cressida, Ajax, speaking to Thersites^ 
says (according to the first Folio) 

" Speake then, tliou wldniiTst leaueii, speake." 

Not knowing what to make ©f this word Whinidj subsequent 
editors have changed it to Unsalted. And thus Mr. Malone 
alters the text^ with the Quarto editions^ 

" Speak then, thou unsalted leaven, speak." 

H. — The first Folio^ in my opinion, is the only edition worth 
regarding. And it is much to be wished, that an edition of 
Shakespeare were given literatim according to the first Folio : 
which is now become so scarce and dear, that few persons can 
obtain it. For, by the presumptuous licence of the dwarfish 
commentators, who are for ever cutting him down to their own 
size, we risque the loss of Shakespeare^s genuine text ; which 
that Folio assuredly contains ; notwithstanding some few slight 
errors of the press, which might be noted, without altering. 

This is not the place for exposing all the liberties which 
have been taken with Shakespeare^s text. But, besides this 
unwarrantable substitution of unsalted for whinid^st, a passage 
of Macbeth (amongst innumerable others) occurs to me at pre- 
sent, to justify the wish I have expressed. 

" Approach thou like the rugged Russian beare, 
The arm'd rhinoceros, or th' Hircan tiger, 
Take any shape but that, and my firme nerues 
Shall neuer tremble. Or be aliue againe, 
And dare me to the desart with thy sworde, 
If trembling I Inhabit then, protest mee 
The baby of a girle." 

Pope here changed Inhabit to Inhibit. Upon this correction 
Steevens builds another, and changes Then to Thee. Both 
which insipid corrections Malone, with his usual judgment, in- 
serts in his text. And there it stands 

" If trembUng I inhibit thee'' 



CH. III.] OF ABSTRACTION. 339 

" The emendation Inhibit (says Mr. Malone) was made by- 
Mr. Pope. I have not the least doubt that it is the true read- 
ing. By the other slight but happy emendation^ the reading 
Thee instead of Then, which was proposed by Mr. Steevens, and 
to which I have paid the respect that it deserved by giving it a 
place in the text^ this passage is rendered clear and easy.^^ 

But for these tasteless commentators, one can hardly suppose 
that any reader of Shakespeare could have found a difficulty; 
the original text is so plain, easy and clear, and so much in the 
author^ s accustomed manner. 

" Dare me to the desart with thy sworde," 

^' If I inhabit then " i. e. If then I do not meet thee there : 

if trembling I stay at home, or within doors, or under any roof, 
or within any habitation : If, when you caU me to the desart, I 
then House me, or, through fear, hide myself from thee in any 
dwelling ; 

'' If trembling I do House me then — Protest me &c." 

But a much stronger instance of the iboportance of such a 
strictly similar edition (in which not a single lette7' or supposed 
misprint should be altered from the original copy) offers itself to 
me from the two following passages : 
" He blushes, and 'tis hit." 

AlVs icell that ends uell, p. 253. col. 1. 
Mr. Malone has altered the text to 

" He blushes, and 'tis it." 
And he adds the following note ; 

"The old copy has — ^tis hit. The emendation \\2i^ made 

by Mr. Steevens. In many of our old chronicles I have found 
hit printed instead of it. Hence probably the mistake here.^^ 

" Stop up th' accesse and passage to remorse, 
That no compunctious visitings of nature 
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between 
Th' eifect and mi :'— Macbeth, p. 134. 

Upon this passage Mr. jVIalone (harving again altered the text, 
from hit to it) says, 

" The old copy reads — Between the effect and hit — the cor- 
rection was made by the editor of the third Folio.^^ 

The Correcter and the Adopter deserve no thanks for their 

z 2 



L- 



340 OP ABSTRACTION. [PART IT. 

miscliievous alteration : for miscliievous- it is ; although no al- 
teration can, at first sight, appear more trivial. 

I can suppose one probable mischief to have resulted from it 
to my former castigator, Mr. Burgess, — (I beg his pardon, the 
present Lord Bishop of St. David's) . 

It is possible that he may not have seen the first Folio, and 
may have read only the corrected text of Shakespeare. If 
so; by this alteration he may have missed one chance of a 
leading hint; by which, if foUovred, he might have been en- 
abled to fulfill his undertaking, concerning an explanation of 
the Pronouns, which he promised : no unimportant part in the 
philosophy or system of human speech. For I can easily sup- 
pose that, with his understanding and industry, (for I have 
heard a very favourable mention of him, in all respects) he 
might have been struck with this hit. in Shakespeare : and 
might, in consequence, have travelled backward; and have 
found that, not only in our old chronicles, but in all our old 
English authors, down to the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the 
vrord was so written; and that it was not, as poor Malone 
imagined, any mistake of the Printer. 

" And whan the bisshop aright hym bethouglite. 

He gan remembre playnly in his mynde 

That of disdayne and wylful necligenee 

The yerde of Joseph was left behynde ; 

Wherby he knewe that he had done ofPence, 

And gan alone to brynge hit in presence, 

And toke hit Joseph deuoutely in his honde." 

Lydgate. Lyfe of our Lady^ p. 27. 
" The bisshoppe hath the cuppe fyrste directe 

Unto Joseph, and hym the parell tolde. 

And manly he gan it holde 

And dranke het up, and chaunged nat his chere." — Ibid. p. 91. 

" Whiche ordinaunce of Moses was afterward established in the citie 
of Athens, and from thens the Romaines receiued hit." — Ih\ Martin's 
Confutation of Poynett, chapiter 4. 

" Not that matrimonie is of the church abhorred, for the churche doeth 
reuerence and alowe hit." — Id. chap. 7. 

" He useth not the onely tearme of womanne by hit selfe." — Id. 
chap. 13. 

" I geue mi regall manyer called Wie, with al thappertenaunces 
longinge to my regall crowne, with al liberties priuilegies and regal 



CH. 111.] OF ABSTRACTION. 3^1 

customes as fre and gayet as I hadde hit fyrste." — The true Byfferences 
of Begall Power. By Lord Stafford. 

[" Much in his glorious conquest suifred hee : 
And hell in vaine hit selfe opposde." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, translated by B. C. Mq. p. 2. 
" Molto soffn nel giorioso acquisto : 
E in van 1' Inferno a lui s' oppose." — G-ierus. liberata^ cant. 1. 

" Wheregainst when Persians passing number preast, 
In battaile bold they hit defended thanne." — Qod. of Bull. p. 5. 

" L'havea poscia in battaglia ingontra -gente 
Di Persia innumerabile difesa." 

" And in this course he entred is so farre, 

That ought but that, hit seemes of nought he weyes." — Ibid. p.. 6. 
" E cotanto internarsi in tal pensiero, 

Ch' altra impresa non par, che piu rammenti." 

" His shape unseene with aire he doth inuest, 
And unto mortall sence hit subject makes." — Ibid. p. 9. 

" La sua forma inuisibil d' aria cinse, 
Et al senso mortal la sottopose." 

" But he her warlike image farre in hart 
Preserued so as hit presents aliue."— /^ii?. p. 26. 

" Ma r imagine sua bella e guerriera 
Tale ei serbo nel cor, qual essa e viva." 

" He past th' Egean sea and Greekish shore, 

And at the campe arriues, where far hit stayes." — Ibid. p. 33. 
" Sarcb 1' Egitto, passb di Grecia i liti, 

Giunse ne V campo in region remote." 

*' On that chast picture seyz'd in rau'ning wise, 
And bare hit to that church, whereof offence 
Of fond and wicked rites prouokes the skyes." 

Ibid. p. 53. cant. 2. st. 7. 

" e irreverente 

II casto simulacro indi rapio ; 

E portoUo a quel tempio, ove sovente 

S' irrita il ciel col foUe culto e rio." 

" Th' aduised chief taine with a gentle bit 
Guideth, and seconds their so bent desire, • 

To turne the course more easie seemeth hit 
Of winding wane that rouls Caribdis nire, 
Or Boreas when at sea he ships doth slit." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, p. 98. cant. 3. st. 2. 



342 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" Where is tlie kyngedorae of the dyuelle, yf hit be not in warre ? " — 
Bellum M'asmi, hy BertJielet, 1534. p. 15. 

" In warre if there happen any thynge luckely, hit perteyneth to verye 
fewe : and to tlieym, that are unworthye to haue it." — Ibid. p. 19. 

" Pyrste of all consider, howe lothelye a thynge the rumour of warre is, 
when HIT is fyrste spoken of. Then howe enuious a thing hit is unto a 
prince, whyles with often demes and taxes he pilleth his subjectes." — 
Ibid. p. 19. 2 ; and in eighteen other places in this very small treatise of 
thirty-nine small pa^-es. 

" For myself, gracious Soveraigne, "that if hit mishappe me, in any 
thinge heerafter that is on the behalfe of your Commons in your high 
presence to be declared." — Life of Syr TJiomas More, by Mr. Moper, 
p. 35.] 

I must suppose that when he had noticed innumerable such 
instances, he would then have gone still further back, to our 
original language : and there he would have found this same 
word written J^it, J^yt, and J^set : which might perhaps have 
plainly discovered to him, that this pronoun was merely the 
past participle of the verb hjVlT/\.lSr, J^setan, nominare.* 
And, upon application, he would have found this meaning, viz. 
nominatum, i. e. The Said, perfectly to correspond with every 
use of the word it in our language. Having observed this, he 
would have smiled at our grammatical arrangements; and 
would not have been in the least shocked to find (as he would 
often find) the word it used in the following manner, 

" Tlie greate kynge, it whiche Cambyses 
Was \\oiQ.'"—Gower, lib. 7. fol. 158. p. 1. col. 1. 

" When King Arthur had scene them doe all tr.is, hee asked Sir 
Launcelot what were those knights and that queene. Sir, said Launcelot, 
I cannot shew you no certaintie, but if Sir Tristram or Sir Palomides. 

^ " And so befel that in the taas they founde 
Two yonge knyghtes lyeing by and by 
Both in armes same, wrought full rychely. 
Of whiche two, Arcyte Jiight that one, 

And that other JiigJit Palamon." — Knightes Tale, fol. 1. p. 3. col. 2. 
]\Ir. Tyrwhitt in his note upon this word Hight, says, 
" It is difficult to determine precisely what part of speech it is ; but, 
upon the whole, I am inclined to consider it as a word of a very singular 
form, a verb active with a passive signification." 

It is the same past tense, and therefore past participle of JlyVlTyVN ', 
and has the same meaning a? hit or jt. 



CH. III.] OF ABSTRACTION. 343 

Wit yee well of a certaine it beene they and la beale Isond." — His- 
torie of Prince Arthur, 3d part, chap. 98. 

For he would be well aware, that it, (or The Said) is (like 
all our other participles) as much masculine as feminine [or 
neuter,] and as plurally applicable as singularly.^ And from 
this small inlet, perhaps, (if from no other quarter) the nature 
of all the other pronouns might instantly have rushed upon his 
mind, and have enabled him to perform satisfactorily his con- 
tract with the public. 

F. — I have often remarked, amongst all our old writers, a 
similar use of the word that ; which, as well as it, is applied by 
them indifferently to plural nouns and to singular. For instance ; 
in that Traictise you have quoted, by Dr. Martin, (who wrote 
accurately and was no mean scholar) we meet with such sen- 
tences as the following ; 

" Patrones elected many into that holy ordres, neither of age, nor 
of learnyng, nor of discretion, woorthie to take so high a function." — 
p. 2. 

" The temporall menne at that dayes did much extoUe and mayntaine 
chastitie." — p. 47. 

" The midwife, christenyng the child, added not that solemne wordes, 
nor any man promised the same for him." — p. 113. 

" There was a statute or ii deuysed to take away that peines of the 
church, that were before alwaies ordeined and used against maried 
priestes." — p. 140. 

"To the entente they might the more fully and frely repose them 
selues in that unspeakeble joyes with which Christe feedethe them." 
—p. 284. 

So, in the Hist, of Prince Arthur, 3d part, chap. 98. 

" And so three of them were come home againe, that were Sir 
Gawaine, Sir Ector, and Sir Lionell." 

^ [ " My powers are cressent, and my auguring hope 
Sayes it will come to th' full." 

Antony and Cleopatra, p. 345. col. 1. 
Malone has altered the text, and adopts Theobald's reading and note. 

" My power 's a crescent," &c. 
" What (says Mr. Theobald) does the relative it belong to ? It cannot 
in sense relate to hope ; nor in concord to powers'' 
" Is your gold and siluer ewes and rams ? 
I. cannot tell, I make it breede as fast." 

Merchant of Venice, p. 166. col. 2.] 



344 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Sir Thomas More uses it in the same manner. 

" This pleasure undoubtedly farre excelleth all that pleasures that in 
this life maie be obteined." — Life of Picm, p. 12. 

" That euyll aungels the deuilles." — P. 386 of his Workes. 

Now I have always hitherto supposed this to be a careless 
and vicious manner of writing in our antient authors ; * but I 
begin to suspect that they were not guilty of any false concord 
in this application of the word. When treating formerly of the 
Conjunctions, I remember, you left that unexplained. I thought 
it not very fair at the time ; and you gave but a poor reason for 
the omission. Will you oblige me now^ by informing me 
whether you think the etymology and meaning of that will 
justify this antient use of the word ? 

H. — In my mind, perfectly. For that (in the Anglo-Saxon 
Dset, i. e. Deab, Deafc) means Taken, Assumed ; being merely 
the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb Dean, Dejan, ©ion, 
^ihjlN, Dicjan, Dijian ; sumere^ assumere, accipere ; To the. 
To Get, To Take, To Assume, 
" 111 mote he the 
That caused me 

To make myselfe a frere." — Sir T. Morels Workes, p. 4. 
[ " Wyse men alway aflfyrme and say That best is for a man diligently 
for to apply the business that he can, and in no wyse to enterpryse an 
other faculte ; for he that wyll and can no skyll, is neuer lyke to the." — 
Si7' T. More's TForkes, p. 1. 

" Well mote yee thee, as well can wish yonr thought." 

Faerie Queene, book 2. cant. 1. st. 33. 
" Fayre mote he thee, the pro west and most gent. 
That ever brandished bright Steele on hye." 

Ibid, book 2. cant. 11. st. 17.] 

^ [For a similar use of that, see Fabian : " of that partyes," page iiii. 
69, 98. *' at that dayes," xi. xxiiii. xxxiii. xxxix. xli. xlvi. 248, 374. 
" by that costes," xci. " that artycles," 60. " in that countres," 
232. " that disguysers," 363. 

" Of the ferther maner this examples or questyons be." — Tlie thre 
hookes of Tidlyes Offi)ce& latelij translated by Roberte Jfhytinton, poete 
laureate. Fyrst booke. By Wynkyn de Worde, 1534. 

" Man that hath the use of reason wherby he seeth that thynges that 
folowe." — Id. Fyrst booke. 

" Of this four places wherin we haue deuyded the nature and the 
vertiie of honesty," — Id. Fyrst booke. 

"For this consydcracions," &c. — Id. Fyrst booke (pag. 68).] 



CH. III.] OF ABSTRACTION. 345 

It and that always refer to some thing or things^ person 
or persons, Taken j Assumed, or Spoken of before ; such only 
being the meaning of those two words. They may therefore 
well supply each other's place : as we say indifferently, and with 
the same meaning, of any action mentioned in discourse ; either 
— " IT is a good action ; ^' or, " that is a good action." i. e. 
.The Said (action) is a good action; or. The Assumed {diCiion) 
is a good action ; or. The action, Received in discourse, is a good 
action. 

The (our Article, as it is called) is the Imperative of the same 
verb Dean : which may very well supply the place of the corre- 
spondent Anglo-Saxon article fe, which is the Imperative of 
peon, videre : for it answers the same purpose in discourse, to 
say — See man, or, Take man. For instance ; 

" The man that hath not musicke in himsehe 

Is fit for treasons," &c. Or, 
" That man is fit for treasons," &c. 

take man (or see man) ; taken man hath not musicke, &c. 
SAID man, or taken man is fit for treasons, &c. 

This analysed method of speech must, I know, seem strange 
and aukward to you at first mention ; but try it repeatedly, as I 
have done for years ; apply this meaning frequently on every 
occasion where the and that are used in the language ; and I 
fear not your conviction. But if the experiment should fail, and 
leave you in the smallest doubt, we will then enter further into 
the subject : for we must hereafter return to it. 

F. — All this may be as you have represented it; and the 
Bishop perhaps may not be displeased at the intelligence. But 
you have lost sight of my original question. What say you to 
this monstrous alteration of unsalted for Whinid'st ? 

H. — I say, that a man must either have no ears, or very long "} 
ears, not to perceive that this was never Shakespeare's lan- 
guage. Metre is not confined to Verse : there is a tune in all 
good prose ; and Shakespeare's was a sweet one. If unsalted 
is to be adopted instead of JVhinid ; to keep his tune, you must 
omit one of the two monosyllables, either then or thou. 

In behalf of the word Whinid, Mr. Steevens has well noted 
that, Francis Beaumont in his letter to Speght, on his edition 
of Chaucer's works, 160.2, says — " Many of Chaucer's words 



346 or ABSTRACTION. [part II. 

are become, as it were, vinew^d and hoarie with over long 
lying.'' 

And Mr. Justice Blackstone_, on the same side, has observed 
that — ^^ In the preface to James the first's bible, the translators 
speak of Fenowed (i. e. Vinew^d or mouldy) traditions.^' 

And Mr. Malone himself acknowledges that — ^^ In Dorset- 
shire they, at this day call cheese, that is become mouldy, Vinny. 
cheese.'' 

F. — But why it is called Whinid, or Vinew^d, or Fenowed, 
or Vinny J does not any how appear : and its meaning is only to 
be conjectured from the context, where the word is found. Now 
I wish to know, whether Whinid is also a participle : and, if a 
participle, of what verb. 

H. — Whinid — Vinew'dj Fenowed, Vinny, or pnie, is a past 
participle : and of the verb Fynijean, To corrupt, To decay. To 
wither. To fade. To pass away, To spoil in any manner. Fmie 
hlap, in Anglo-Saxon is a corrupted or spoiled loaf, whether by 
mould or any other means. " J^psec 'Sa 'Sa Erabanij-cean 
jamenlice psebbon. 25!nb mib jeaplicpe jzape jzepbon to lopue. 
Namon him ealbe jep cy. anb unopnlic j'cpub. anb pmie hlajiap." 
Joshua, ix. 3-5. 

F. — It seems probable enough : and it is not at all surprising 
that this Anglo-Saxon verb, pynijean, should have been over- 
looked ; since it has left behind it no other traces of its former 
existence, but barely this solitary expression. 

H. —I beg your pardon : It has left a numerous issue. No 
European etymologist can do without it. Whither else can he 
turn, without exposing himself, for the French Fanjer, Se fener, 
Evanouir, and Fange ; for the Italian Affdnno, Affannare, and 
Fango ; for the Latin Vanus, and Vanesco ; for the German 
Pfinnig ; and for the English faint, and fen ; and many other 
words,^ with which I forbear at this time to pester you ? 

F. — And yet they have done very well without it. 



^ [Galbe gej^cy. Old slices. — Shoe is the past participle of j^cyan — 
ge-j^cyan, sub-ponere. Shoe, is, siipposltum.'] 
^ [" Per essa il re Agrican quasi van eg Gi A 
E la sua vita iiou stinia lui danaio." 

Orlando Linamorato [da Bend), lib. 1. cant. 10. st. 18.] 
[See below, eh. iv. v. Faint : — also the quotation from Upton, in the 
Additional Notes. — Ed.] 



CH. III.] OF ABSTRACTION. 34:7 

H. — They have done^ it is true: How well_, yourself shall 

judge. Junius says — " rAiNT_, languidus,, pusillanimus_, igna- 

vus^ periculo cedens_, est a Gallico Feindre, non audere_, sub- 
ducere se discrimini : sclent nempe timidi atque imbelles 
formidinem suam pluribus vanissimorum obtentuum figmentis 
tegere.^^ 

Minshew — " Faint, a Gallico Faner, a Lat. Fanescere" 

Skinner — ^'^ Faint_, a Fr. G. Faner, Fener ; deficere, deflo- 
rescere, flaccescere_, emori.^^ 

Menage, Orig. Franc. — ^' Faner, comme ce mot vient de 
Fdinunij quand on le dit dans le sens propre, en parlant d^une 
prairie que Fon Fane ; je crois qu'il en vient pareillement quand 
il signifie Se fletriVj Se secher : car comme le foin, quand on le 
fane, se fletrit et devient pale ; de meme on dit, dans le sens 
figure, Se Faner, de tout ce qui perd sa premiere couleur, sa 
beaute, son air vif." 

Menage, Orig. Ital. — " Affannare, affanno. Da Afa, che 
vale queir affanno cagionato da gravezza d^ aria, o da gran caldo : 
detto dagli Spagnuoli Afan ; e Ahan da i Francesi. Vuole il 
jNIonosini, sia Afa, voce Ebrea.^^ 

" Fango — da Fimus : in questa maniera : FimuSj Fimi, 
Fimicus, Femcus, Fencus, Fengus, Fangus, Fango : e per meta- 
plasmo Fanga : onde il Francese Fange" 

F. — Enough, and too much of this. I will have nothing to 
do with Afa, voce Ebrea ) nor with Fimicus, Fencus, &c. I 
Avill rather accept your Anglo-Saxon derivation. 1 under- 
stand you then to say that faint (as well as Fennowed, &c.) is 
the past participle of pynijean : yet it does not terminate in 
ED or ^D. 

H. — In English nothing is more common than the change of 
the participial terminating d to t. Thus, 

Joint — is Joined, Joined, Joint. 

Feint — is Feigned, Feigned, Feint. 

Gift — is Gived, Giv'd, Gift. 

Rift — is Rived, Riv'd, Rift. 

"Tlie shippe drone unto a castle and was al to riven." 

Illslorie of Prince Arthur^ part 1st. cliap. 25. 

" AYarres 'twixt you twaine Would be 

As if the world should cleaue, and that slaine men 

Should sodder up the rift." — Antony and Okopaira, p. 353. 



348 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART IT. 



." The clouds 



From many a horrid eift abortive pour'd 
Fierce rain with lightening mix'd." 

Paradise MegairCd^ book 4. v. 411. 
[" He pluckt a bough : out of whose rifte there came 
Smal drops of gory bloud, that trickled down the same." 

Faerie Queene^ book 1. cant. 2. st. 30. 
" Into a cloven pine ; within which eift 
Imprison' d, thou didst painfully remain 
A dozen years."- — Tempest. 1 

Cleft '\ 

Clift >— is Cleaved, Cleaved, Cleft, 

Cliff J 

" Adowne he shofth his hand to the clyfte 
In hope to fynde there some good gyfte." 

Sompner's Tale, fol. 44. p. 2. col. 1. 
"But yet this clifte was so narrowe and lyte 

It was nat sene "—Ti/sbe, fol. 210. p. 2. col. 1. 
"And romyng on the cleuis by the see." 

HypsipMle, fol. 214. p. 1. col. 1. 
" This lady rometh by the clyffe to play." 

Ibid. fol. 214. p. 1. col. 2. 
" In tyme of Crystus passyon the veyl of the Jewes temple to rente 
and cleef in two partes." — Biues and Pauper, thyrde Comm. cap. 3. 

"She founde that moneye hangynge in the craueyses and clyftes 
of the half bushel." — Ibid, fourth Comm. cap. 4. 

" Loue led hym to his deth and cleef his hert atwo.". 

Ibid, tenthe Comm. cap. 3. 
" Kob Doner's neighbouring cleeves of sampyre." 

Poly-olbion. Song 18. 

[ "As an aged tree, 

High growing on the top of rocky clift, 
• Whose hart-strings with keene Steele nigh hewen be ; 
The miglitie truncke halfe rent with ragged rift 
Doth roll adowne the rocks, and fall with fearefuU drift." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 8. st. 22. 
" So downe he fell, as an huge rocky clift, 
Whose false foundacion waves have washt away, 
With dreadfull jjoi/se is from the mayneland rift, 
And, rolling downe, great Neptune doth dismay." 

Ibid, book 1. cant. 11. st. 54. 



CH. III.] OF ABSTRACTION. 349 

" Whiles, sad Celeno, sitting on a clifte, 
A song of bale and bitter sorrow sings. 
That hart of flint asonder could have rifte." 

Faerie Queene, book 2. cant. 7. st. 23.] 

Thrift — is Thrived, Thrived, Thrift. 
Shrift — is Shrived, Shrived, Shrift. 
Drift — is Drived, Driv'd, Drift. 

" Be plaine, good son, rest homely in thy drift, 
Bidling confession Andes but ridling shrift. ^^ 

Romeo and Juliet ^ p. 61. 
" It could no more be hid in him 
Than humble banks can go to law with waters 
That drift winds force to raging." 

B. and Fletcher , Two Noble Kinsmen. 

" Some log perhaps upon the waters swam 
An useless Drift, which, rudely cut vvithin, 
And hoUow'd, first a floating trough became." 

Dry den. Annus ntirabiliSj st. 156. 

Theft— is Tkeved, Tliev'd, Theft. 
Weft — is Weved, Wev'd, Weft. 
Heft — is Heved, Hev'dj Heft. 

" There may be in the cup 

A spider steep'd ; and one may driuke, depart, 
And yet partake no venome (for his knowledge 
Is not infected) ; but if one present 
Th' abhor'd ingredient to his eye, make knowne 
How he hath drunke, he cracks his gorge, his sides, 
With violent hefts." — Winter's Tale, p. 282. 

" In the hert there is the Hefde, and the hygh wyll." 

Vision of Fierce Ploughman, fol. 7. p. 1. 

[" Inflam'd with wrath, his raging blade he hefte. 
And strooke so strongly, that the knotty string 
Of his huge taile he quite asonder clefte." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 11. st. 39. 

" The other halfe behind yet sticking fast 
Out of his head-peece CambeU fiercely reft, 
And with such furie backe at him it heft." 

Ibid, book 4. cant. 3. st. 12.] 

Haft — is Haved, Hav'd, Haft. The haft_, of a knife or 
poniard, is the Haved part ; the part by which it is Haved. 



350 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

*' But yet TiQfond I nought the haft 
Whiche might unto the blade accorde." 

Goioer, lib. 4. fol. 68. p. 1. col. 1. 
[" Porgo th' advantage which thy arms have won, 
Or, by the blood which trembles through the heart 
Of her whom more than life I know thou lov'st, 
I '11 bury to the haft in her fair breast 

This instrument of my revenge." — Dryde^ih (Edipus, act 5. sc. 1.] 
HiLT' — is Held, Helt, Hilt. The hilt of a sword is the Held 
part^ the part which is Held. 

[" If Tindall saye, nay : let him shew me which olde holy Popes were 
they, that euer hild that the sacramentes of the Auter is suche a bare 
simple signe." — Sir T. More's Workes, p. 471. 
" And in her other hand a cup she hild, 
The which was with Nepenthe to the brim upfild." 

Fae7'ie Queeue^ book 4. cant. 3. st. 42. 
" But what do I their names seeke to reherse, 
Wliich all the world have with, their issue fild ? 
How can they all in this so narrow verse 
Contayned be, and in small com passe hild ? " 

Faerie Queene, book 4. cant. 11. st. 17.] 
Tight — is Tied, Ti'd, Tight, of the Anglo-Saxon verb Tian, 
vincire^ To Tie, 

" To seie howe suche a man hath good 
Who so that reasone understoode 
It is unproperlicke- sayde : 
That good hath hym, and halt him taide 
That he ne gladdeth nought withall. 
But is unto his good a thrall." — Gower, fol. 84. p. 1. col. 1. 

[" And in the midst of them he saw a knight, 

With both his hands behinde him pinnoed hard, 

And round about his necke an halter tight. 

And ready for the gallo\x tree prepard." 

Faerie Queene, book 5. cant. 4. st. 22. 
" Therewith he mured up his mouth along. 

And therein shut up his blasphemous tong. 

And thereunto a great long chaine he tight, 

With which he drew him forth, even in his own despight." 

Ibid, book 6. cant. 12. st. 34.] 

Desert — is Deserved, Deserved, Desert. 

Fart, a very innocent word, (the Egyptians thought it 



CH. III.] OF ABSTRACTION. 351 

divine ^) Fared, Far^d, Fart, i. e. Fared, Gone ; the past parti- 
ciple of jzapaiij To Fare, or To Go. The meaning of this word 
appears to have been understood by those who introduced the 

vulgar country custom of saying upon such an occasion, 

" And joy go with you.^^ 

Twist — is Twiced, Twic^d, Twist. 

Quilt — is Quilled, Quill' d, Quilt. 

Want — is Waned, Wan'd, Want, the past participle of panian, 
decrescere_, To Wane, To fall away. 

Gaunt— is Ge-waned, Gewan'd, Gewant, G'want, Gaunt ; the 
past participle of De-panian_, To Wane, To decrease,, To fall 
away. Ge is a common prefix to the Anglo-Saxon verbs. 
Gaunt was formerly a very common word in English. 

" As gant as a greyhound." — ^ay^ s jproverhial Similies. 

" How is 't with aged Gaunt ? 

Oh how that name befits my composition : 
Old Gaunt indeed, and gaunt in being old : 
Within me greefe hath kept a tedious fast, 
And who abstaynes from meate, that is not gaunt ? 
For sleeping England long time haue I watcht, 
Watching breeds leannesse, leannesse is all gaunt. 
The pleasure that some fathers feede upon 
Is my strict fast, I mean my childrens lookcs, 
And therein fasting hast thou made me gaunt. 
Gaunt am I for the graue, gaunt as a graue, 
"Whose hollow wombe inherits nought but bones/' 

Richard the Second, p. 28. 

— " This man, 

If all our fire were out, would fetch down new 

Out of the hand of Jove ; and rivet him 

To Caucasus, should he but frown : and let 

His own GAUNT eagle fly at him, to ^w-e." — B. Jonson, Catiline. 

^ " Crepitus ventris pro numinibus habendos esse docuere." 

Clemens Romavms, v. Recognit. 

"lidem iEgyptii cum plerisque vobiscum non magis Isidem quam 
ceparum acrimonias metuunt ; nee Serapidem magis quam strepitus, 
per pudenda corporis expressos, extremiscunt." — Mlnucius Felix, Oc- 
tavius. 

\^' Eleganter Demetrius noster solet dicere, Eodem loco sibi esse 
voces imperitorum, quo ventre redditos crepitus. Quid enira, inquit, 
mea refert, sursum isti an deorsum sonent ? " — Seneca, Epist. xcii. edit. 
4ta. Lipsii. p. 583, 584.] 



352 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

" Two mastiffs gaunt and grim her fliglit pursu'd, 
And oft their fastened fangs in blood embru'd. 
And first the dame came rushing through the wood, 
And next t]iQ famisli' d hounds." — Dry den, Theodore and Honoria. 
Draught — the past participle of Dpajan^ To Draughj (now 
written To Draw) Draughed, DraugNd, Draught. 
Rent — Rended, Rend'd, Rent ; of the verb To Rend. 

[ " But thou, viper, 

Hast cancell'd kindred, made a rent in nature." 

Bryden, Don Sebastian, act. 2. sc. 1.] 

Bent — A person's Bent or Inclination. Bended, Bend'd, j 
Bent. 

Tilt — of a boat or waggon : the past participle of the Anglo- 
Saxon verb Tilian, i. e. To raise, or To lift up. To Till the 
ground_, is, To raise it. To turn it up. Atilt is well said of a 
vessel that is raised up ; but we ought to say To Till, and not 
To Tilt a vessel. 

" Many wynter men lyued, and no meate ne tiliden." 

Vision of Pierce Ploughnan, pass. 15. fol. 73. p. 2. 

" Turned upsidowne, and ouer tilt the rote." 

Ibid. pass. 21. fol. 112. p. 1. 

" He garde good fayth flee, and false to abyde, 
And boldly bare downe with many a bright noble 
Much of the wit and wisedome of Westminster hal, 
He justled tyll a justice, and iusted in his eare 
And ouertilt al his truth." Ibid. pass. 21. fol. 113. p. 2. 

" O hye God, nothyng they tell, ne ho we, 
But in Goddes worde telleth many a balke." 

Chaucer, Ploughmans Tale, fol. 95. p. 2. col. 2. 

[The old French verb Attiltrer (used by Amyot ^ and others, p 
and whose signification is mistaken by Cotgrave), means ^^ 
susciter, To excite. To raise up : it is derived from the A.-S. 
Tihan.*] 

jP.— What is malt ? 

H. — Mould and Malt, though now differently pro- 
nounced, written, and applied by us, are one and the same 

^ [Plutarch's Life of Pericles.] 

' [So the Till of a shop ; so the Thill horse : and so perhaps a Tile. 
Query, may it not be from Tegola, Italian ? [Tegl. from Lat. Teyula. — 
Ed.] Consider also the Prench Tilleul.'] 



CH. III.] OF ABSTRACTION. 353 

French Tvord Mouille ; the past participle of the verb Moiiiller, 
To wet or To moisten. Mouille, anglicized^ becomes Mouilled, 
MouilVd, Mould: then Moult, Mault, Malt, Wetting or 
moistening of the grain is the first and necessary part of the 
process in making what we therefore well term malt. 

" He had a cote of christendome as holy kyrke beleueth 
And it was moled in mani places." 

Visio7i of F. Ploughman^ pass. 14. fol. G8. p. 3. 

" Shal neuer chest bymolen it, ne mough after byte it." 

Ibid. pass. 15. fol. 71. p. 2. 
*' This leper loge take for thy goodly hour 
And for thy bed, take nowe a bunch of stro, 
For wayled wyne and meates thou hadst tho. 
Take mouled breed, pirate, and syder sour." 

Com/playnt of Creseyde, fol. 204. p. 1. col. 1. 

** And with his blode shaU wasshe undefouled 

The gylt of man with rust of synne ymouled." 

Lydgate (1531). Lyfe of our Lady, boke 2. p. 45. 
" Whan mamockes was your meate 

With MOULD bread to eat." Skelton. (Edit. 1736.) p. 197. 

F. — En^ as well as ed, is almost a common participial termi- 
nation^ and our ancestors affixed either indifferently to any 
word. Sir Thomas More appears to have had a predilection for 
EN^ and he writes Understanden [Works, vol. 2. p. 550.) whilst 
his contemporary Bishop Gardner preferred ed, and therefore 
wrote Understanded : We have deserted both^ and now use the 
past tense Understood instead of the participle. But will not a 
final EN or ^n likewise direct us to some of these concealed 
participles ? 

H. — Surely, to many. After what we have noticed in 
Poltroon, Dastard, and Coward, we cannot avoid seeing, that 

Craven — is one who has craved or craven his life from his 
antagonist — dextramque precantem protendens. 

Leaven — is from the French Lever, To raise ; i. e. That by 
which the dough is raised. So the Anglo-Saxons called it 
y^ayeu, the past participle of their own verb )^eapan, To 
raise. 

Heaven — (subaud. some place, any place) Heav-en or 
Heav-ed. 

2 A 



354 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" They say that this word heuen in the article of our foyth, ascendit 
ad coelos, signifieth no certaine and determinat place. ' Som tyme it 
signiiieth only the suppre place of creatures." — A Declaration of Christe, 
cap. 8. by Johan Hoper. 1547. 

Bacon — is evidently tlie past participle of Bacan^ To Bake, or 
To dry by heat. 

" Our brede was newe baken, and now it is hored, our hotels and 
our wyne weren newe, and now our hotels be nygh hrusten.'' — Diues and 
Pauper, 2d Comm. cap. 20. 

" And there they dranke the wine and eate the venison and the foules 
BAKEN." — Hist, of Prince Arthur, 1st part, chap. 133. 
" As Abraham was in the playn 
Of Manire where he dwelt, 
And BEAKT himselfe agaynst the sunne 
Whose parching heat he felt." 

Genesis, chap. 18. fol. 34. p. 1. By W. Hunnis. 1578. 
" Crane, beinge rosted or baken, is a good meate." 

Castel ofHelth, fol. 21. p. 1. By Syr Thomas Elyot. 

" Whosoeuer hath his mynd inwardly ameled, baken, and through 

fyred with the loue of God." Lupsefs WorJces, Of Charite, p. 5. 

Barren — i. e. Barr-edj stopped, shut, strongly closed up, 
which cannot be opened, from which can be no fruit nor 
issue. 

*' God shall make heuen and the ayer aboue the, brasen ; and the 
erthe byneth the, yreny ; that is to saye, barey^ne, for defaute of rayne." 
— Biues and Pauper, 10th Comm. cap. 8. 
" For God thus plagued had the house 
Of Biraelech the king, 
The matrix of them all were stopt. 
They might no issue bring." — Genesis. By W. Hmmis. 
*' For the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of 
Abimelech." — Genesis, chap. 20. v. 18. 

So, in an imprecation of barrenness, in Beaumont and 
Fletcher's Woman Hater, act 5. sc. 2 : 

" Mayst thou be quickly old and painted ; mayst thou dote upon some 
sturdy yeoman of the Wood-yard, and he be honest ; mayst thou be 
harr'd the lawful lechery of thy coach, for want of instruments ; and last, 
be thy womb unopen'd.^^ 

Stern — Ster-en, Ster^n, i. e. Stirred. It is the same word and 
has the same rneaninj^, whether we say — a stern countenance, 
i. e. a moved countenance, moved by some passion : or the 



CH. III.] OF ABSTRACTION. 355 

STERN of a ship, i. e. The moved part of a ship, or that part by 
which the ship is moved. It is the past participle of the verb 
f tyjian, f cipan, movere ; which we now in English write differ- 
ently, according to its different application. To Stir, or To Steer. 
But which was formerly written in the same manner, however 
applied. 

" The STERNE wynde so loude gan to route 
That no wight other noyse might here." 

Troi/lus, boke 3. fol. 176. p. 2. col. 1. 
" There was no more to skippen nor to praunce, 
But boden go to bedde with mischaunce. 
If any wight steryng were any where 
And let hem slepen, that a bedde were." 

Ibid, boke 3. fol. 176. p. 1. col. 2. 
" And as the newe abashed nightyngale 
That stynteth first, whan she begynneth syng, 
Whan that she hereth any heardes tale, 
Or in the hedges any wight steryng." 

Ibid, boke 3. fol. 179. p. 1. col. 2. 
" She fell in a grete malady as in a colde palsey, so ferforth that she 
myght neyther stere hande nor fote." — NycJiodemiis Gospell, chap. 8. 

" Whan I sawe the sterynges of the elementes in his passyon, T 
byleued that he was Sauyour of the worlde." — Ibid. chap. 17. 

" He dyd se as he thought oure blessed lady brynge to hym fay re 
mylke in a foule cuppe, and stered hym to ete of it." — Myracles of our 
Lady, p. 10. (1530.) 

" Yf the chylde steare not ne moue at suche tyme." 

Byrthe of Mankynde, fol. 15, p. 2. (1540.) 
" Warne the woman that laboureth to stere and moue herselfe." — 
Ibid. fol. 23. p. 2. 

" I suffre, and other poore men lyke unto me, am many a tyme 
STERYD to grutche and to be wery of my lyfe." — Biues and Fatiper, 1st 
Comm. cap. 1. 

" Yf a man wyll styre well a shyp or a bote, he may not stande in 
the myddes of the shyp, ne in the former ende ; but he muste stande in 
the last ende, and there he may styre the shyp as he wyl." — Ibid. 9th 
Comm. cap. 8. 

" This bysshop steritii up afreshe these olde heresies." 

Gardnem Bed. against Joye, fol. 25. p. 1. (1546.) 
" He STERID against himselfe greate wrath and indignation of God." — 
I)r. Martin. Of Priestes nnlatoful Marriages, ch. 8. 



356 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" It is yourselfes that steire your fleast." 

Br. Martin. Of Priestes unlawful Marriages, ch. 11. 
" Let the husbande geue hys wyfe hir dutie, that is if she craue for it, 
if they feare otherwise that Sathan wyll stiere in them the deuileshe 
desyre to Hue incontinentlie." — Ibid. ch. 11. 

*' Let hym that is angry euen at the fyrste consyder one of these thinges, 
that lyke as he is a man, so is also the other, with whom he is angry, and 
therefore it is as lefull for the other to be angry, as unto hym : and if he 
so be, than shall that anger be to hym displeasant, and stere hym more 
to be 8ingYye."—Castel of Helth, by Syr T. 'U. fol. 63. p. 1. 
" Eough deeds of rage and sterne impatience." 

1st Part Henry VI. p. 113. 
" The sea, with such a storm e as his bare head 
In Hell-blacke night indur'd, would have buoy'd up 
And quench'd the stelled fires. 
Yet, poore old heart, he holpe the heauens to raine. 
If wolues had at thy gate howl'd that sterne time, 
Thou should'st haue said, good porter turne the key." 

Lear, p. 300. 
" He that hath the stirrage of my course 

Direct my sute." Momeo and Juliet, p. 57. 

*' Tread on a worm and she will steir her tail." 

Ray's Scottish Proverbs. 
[" Goe we unto th' assault, and selfe instant. 
Before the rest (so said) first doth he steare." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, translated by H. C. Esq. 
Windet 1594. p. 122. cant. 3. st. 51. 
" His steed was bloody red, and fomed yre, 
When with the maistring spur he did him roughly stire." 

Faerie Queene, book 2. cant. 5. si. 2.] 
Dawn — is the past participle of Dajiaii, lucescere. 
" TyU the daye dawed these damosels daunced." 

Vision of P. Ploughman, pass. 19. fol. 103. p. 2. 
" In the DAWYNGE and spryngyng of the daye, byrdes begynne to 
synge." — Biues and Pauper, 1st Comm. cap. 28. 

" And on the other side, from whence the morning daws." 

Poly-olbion, song 10. 

Born — is the past participle of Beapan, To bear: formerly 
written boren, and on other occasions now written borne. 
Born is, Borne into life or into the world. 

Bearn (for a child) is also the past participle of Beapan, 



CH. III.] OF ABSTRACTION. 357 

To bear ; with this only difference : that Born or Bor-en is the 
past tense Bore with the participial termination en ; and bearn 
is either the past tense Bare, or the Indicative Bear^ with the 
participial termination en. 

" For Maris loue of heuen 
That BARE the blissful barne ^ that bought us on the rode." 

Vision of P. P. pass. 3. fol. 8. p. 1. 

[Bad and Goon. 

To Bay, i. e. To vilify. To bark at, To reproach, To express 
abhorrence, hatred, and defiance, &c. Bayed, Baed, i. e. Bay'd, 
Ba'd, abhorred, hated, defied, i. e. bad. 

Bay en, Bay'n, Baen, write and pronounce bane. 

Abbaiare, It. Abboyer, Fr. Abbaubare, Lat. &c. Greek, 
Boaci). When the Italians swarmed in the French court, not 
being able to pronounce the open sound of Oy or Oi, they 
changed the o into a; as in Frangais, Anglais. See Henri 
Etienne. So also Nivernais. Abayer. 

To Ban, i. e. to curse. Bas, Fr. Base. 

Ge-owed perhaps Gowed, written and pronounced Good, 
which the Scotch pronounce and write gude.] 

Churn — [Chyren, Chyr'n, Chyrn) is the past participle of 
lirypan, agitare, vertere, revertere. To move backwards and 
forwards. 

Yarn — is the past participle of Dyppan, Irypian, To 
prepare, To make ready. In Antony and Cleopatra, p. 367. 
— "Yare, yare, good Iras^^ — is the Imperative of the same 
verb ; the L- and 5 of the Anglo-Saxons, however pronounced 
by them, being often (indeed usually) softened by their de- 
scendants to Y. 

When Valeria in Coriolanus, page 4, says — " You would be 
another Penelope : yet they say, all the yearne she spun in 
Ulysses absence did but fill Athica full of mothes," — Yearne 
(i. e. Yaren) means Prepared (subaud. Cotton, Silk, or Wool) 
by spinning. 



^ [ " The A. S. has two similar words which have been confounded : 
Beorin, inasc. ' a chieftain,' pi. beojinaj- ; and Bearin, neut. * a child,' 
sing, and pi. alike." — Kemble's Glossary to Beoicidf.'] 



358 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

F. — Is BRAWN one of these participles ? 

H. — Ed and en are Adjective as well as Participial ter- 
minations : for which, by their meaning (for all common 
terminations have a meaning, nor would they otherwise be 
common terminations) they are equally qualified. Thus we 
say — Golden, Brazen, Wooden, Silken, Woolen, &c. and for- 
merly were used Silver-en, Ston-en, Treen-en, Ros-en, Glas-en, 
&c. 

" Tliei worshipiden not deuelys and symylacris, goldun, silueren, 
and BRASONE, and stonen, and treenen ; the whiche nether mown se 
nether here nether wandre." 

In the modern translation, 

"That they should not worship Devils and Idols of gold, and silver, 
and brass, and stone, and of wood ; which neither can see nor hear nor 
walk." — Apocalips, ch. 9. v. 20. 

" xind I saw as a glasun see meynd with fier, and hem that ouer- 
camen the beest and his ymage, and the noumbre of his name stondynge 
aboue the glasun sse." 



In the modern translation 



" And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire : and them 
that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over 
his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass'* — 
Ibid. ch. 15. V. 2. 

" Whan Phebus the sonne begynneth to sprede hys clerenesse with 
ROSEN chariottes." — Chaucer, Boecius, boke 2. fol. 227. p. 1. col. 1. 

" The day the fayrer ledeth the rosen horse of the sonne." 

Ibid, boke 2. fol. 231. p. 2. col. 2. 

" That er the sonne toraorrowe be rysen newe 
And er he haue ayen rosen hewe." 

Chaucer, Blacke KnygUt, fol. 291. p. 1. col. 1. 

" In their time thei had treen chalices and golden prestes, and now 
haue we golden chalices and treen prestes." — Sir T. More's Works. 
Dialogue &c. p. 114. 

" Sir Thomas Rokesby being controlled for first sufiering himselfe to 
be serued in treene cupi)es, answered — These homely cups and dishes 
pay truely for that they containe : I had rather drinke out of treene, 



CH. III.] 



OF ABSTRACTION. 



359 



and pay gold and siluer, than drinke out of gold and siluer, and make 
wooden payment." — Camdens Remains, p. 341. 

[Strawen. 
" Let him lodge hard, and lie in strawen bed, 
That may pull downe the courage of his pride." 

Faerie Queene, book 5. cant. 5. st. 50. 

EUGHEN. 

" Or els by wrestling to wex strong and heedfuU, 
Or his stiffe armes to stretch with eughen bowe." 

Spenser, Mother Huhherds Tale.] 

Our English word boar is the Anglo-Saxon Baji_, which 
they pronounced broad as Bawr ; and so our Northern country- 
men still call a, and formerly wrote it. So they wrote RaVj 
and pronounced Rawr, what we now write and pronounce 
Roar. 

" The bersit baris and beris in thare styis 
Maring all wod." Douglas, booke 7. p. 204. 

" Or with loud cry folowand the chace 
Efter the fomy bare." Ihid. booke 1. p. 23. 

So the Anglo-Saxon 



Bac 




"Boat 


-s 




^Bawt 


Ban 




Bone 






Bawn 


)^am 




Home 






Hawm 


^bab 


which we 


Abode 




are still pro- 


Abawd 


Balb 


' now call - 


Bold 




• nounced in - 


Bawld 


Dpan 


and write 


Drone 




the North 


Drawn 


Stan 




Stone 






Stawn 


La^ 




Loth 






Lawth 


Earn 




Foa,m 


^ 




^Fawm 


a*''}- - ^» 


_ — _- Cawld, 


Bar-en or Bawr-en^ Bawr'n, was 


5 the antient adjective of Bar, 


Bawr; and^ by the transposition of r, Bawrn has become 


BRAWN. 




Brawn therefore is an adjective, 


and means Boar-en or Boards 


(subaud.) Flesh. 




F. — Is not this a very singular j 


md uncommon kind of trans- 


position ? 













360 



OF ABSTRACTION. 



[part II. 



H. — By no means. Amongst many others, what we now call 
and write 



Grass 

Bright 

Profile 

Brothel 

To Thresh 

Threshold 

Thrilled 

Wright 

Nostril &c 



f Gers 



was formerly 

J^ called and -J 

written 



Ital. Porfilo 
Bordel 



A.-S. Dsepj- 
- - Byjiht 



Thirled 



©ejij'cian 
Dejij-colb 

Pyjihc 



(^ Neisthyrl &c. 

Grass. 

" His uthir wechty harnes, gude in nede, 
Lay on the gers besyde him in the mede." 

Boitglas, booke 10. p. 350. 

" The grene gers bedewit was and wet." Ibid, booke 5. p. 138. 
" Unto ane plesand grand cumin ar thay, 
"With battil gers, fresche herbis and grene swardis." 

Ibid, booke 6. p. 187. 
Bro hel. 
" One Leonin it herde telle, 
Whiclie maister of the bordel was." 

Goioer, lib. 8. fol. 181. p. 2. col. 2. 



^ [To the instances given above of the transposition of the r, as in 
Gers for Grass, may be added Kerse for Cress: — whence the harmk^ss 
sayings " Not worth a Kerse " (cress) — " I don't care a Kerse,^^ have 
been first changed for *' I don't care a Curse,'' &c. and then whim- 
sically metamorphosed into *' I don't 'care a Damn;'' — "Not worth a 
Damn off a common." 

" Wysdom and wytt now is nat worthe a kerse." 

Pierce Ploughman, Powell, pass. 2. 

" I sette not a straw by thy dreminges." 

Chaucer, Nounes Preestes Tale. 

*' Of paramours ne ranght he not a kers." — Milleres Tale. 

So also " ne raughte not a bene,"' ibid., is used in the same sense : — 
and *' nought worth a pease'' Spenser, Shep. Cal. Ocfob., — where note, 
i\\^i pease is the true singular, (like riches, richesse ; bellows, baleise,) pea 
being formed on a misconception. Tlie ancient plural 2)ensen was long 
preserved, probably to avoid the cacophony of the second s, as in housen, 
hosen, still in use in Norfolk : so Daniel iii. 21, "bound in their hosen and 
hats."— Ed.1 



CH. III.] OF ABSTRACTION. 361 

" He hath hii* fro the bordell take." 

Gower, lib. 8. fol. 182. p. 1. col. 2. 
" These harlottes that haunte bordels of these foule women." 

Chaucer, Parsons Tale, fol. 114. p. 2. col. 1. 
" She was made naked and ledde to the boedell house to be defouled 
of synfull wretches." — Biues and Fau^er, ^ih. Comm. cap. 23. 

Thrill. 

" Quhare as the swelth had the rokkis thirllit." 

Douglas, booke 3. p. 87. 
" The cald drede tho gan Troianis inuaide, 
Thirlland throwout hard Banis at eiiery part." 

Ibid, booke 6. p. 164. 

" The prayer of hym that loweth hym in his prayer thyrleth the 
clowdes." — Biues and Pauper, 1st Comm. cap. 56. 

" It is a comon prouerbe, that a shorte prayer thyrleth heuen." — 
Ibid. 1st Comm. cap. 56. 

Nostril, 
" At thare neisthyrles the fyre fast snering out." 

Douglas, booke 7. p. 215. 
[" Flames of fire he threw forth from his large nosethrill." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 11. st. 22.] 
And what we now write and call 

Brent 
Brid 



Burnt 

Bird 

Third 



Thrid 



, were formerly written and 
Thirty y ^J^^^ ^ Thritti 



Thirst 
Burst 
Thorp ^c. 



Thrust 
Brast 
Thrope ^c. 



Burn. 

" Forsothe it is beter for to be weddid than for to be brent." 

Corinthies, ch. 7. v. 9. 
" The great clamour and the weymentyng 
That the ladyes made at the brennyng 
Of the bodyes." Knyglites Tale, fol. ]. p. 2. col. 2. 

" By the lawe, canone 26, suche wytches sholde be heded and 
brente." — Diues and Pauper, 1st Comm. cap. 34. 

"God hath made his arowes hote with brennynge th^mges, for they 
that ben brente with synne shall brenne with the fyre of helle." — 
Ibid. 8th Comm. cap. 15. 



362 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

*' But would to God these hatefull bookes all 
Were in a fyre brent to pouder small," — Sir T. Mores TForkes. 

Bird. 

" Foxis han Borwis or dennes, and briddis of the eir han nestis." — 
MaUheu, ch. 8. (ver. 20.) 

" Whan euery brydde upon his laie 
Emonge the grene leues singeth." 

Gower, lib. 7. fol. 147. p. 1. col. i. 

" Houndes shall ete thy wyfe lesabell, and houndes and bryddes 

shall ete thy bodye." JDiues and Pauper , 9th Comm. cap. 4. 

Third. 

" He weute efte and preiede the thridde tyme." 

MaWieu, ch. 26. (v. 44.) 
Thirty. 
" Thei ordeyneyde to him thritty plates of siluer." 

Mattheu, ch. 26. (v. 15.) 
" Judas solde Cryste, Goddes Sone, for thrytty pens." 

JDiues and Pauper^ 9th Comm. cap. 4. 

Thirst. 
" I hungride and ye gauen not to me for to ete ; I thristide, and 
ye gauen not to me for to drinke. — Lord, whanne saien we thee hun- 
gringe, ether thristinge?" — Mattheu, ch. 25. (v. 35. 37.) 

" He that bileueth in me shal neuer thriste." — John, ch. 6. (v. 35.) 
" There spronge a welle freshe and clere, 
Whiche euer shulde stonde there 
To thrustie men in remembrance." 

Goicer, lib. 6. fol. 129. p. 2. col. 2. 
" Neither hunger, thrust, ne colde." 

Farsons Tale, fol. 118. p. 1. col. 2. 
" Tantalus that was distroyed by the woodenesse of longe thruste." 
— Boecius, boke 4. fol. 240. p. 1. col. 1. 
" And in deserte the byble beretli wytnesse 
The ryuer made to renne of the stone 
The thriste to staunche of the people alone." 

Lydgate, Lyfe of our Lady, p. 65. 
" The thriste of Dauid to staunche." Ibid. p. 164. 

*' They gaaf mete to the hungrye, drynke to the thrustie." 

Dims and Paupei\ Of holy Pouerte, cap. 11. 
" I hadde thryste, and ye gaue me drynke." 

Ibid. 8th Comm. cap. 17. 



CH. III.] OF ABSTRACTION. 363 

" Ther shal be no wepynge, no cryeng, no hongre, no thrust." 

Biues and JBauper, 10th Comm. cap. 10. 
" Theii' THKUST was so great 
They asked neuer for meate 

Eiit drincke, still drynke." Skelton, p. 132. 

[" His office was the hungry for to feed, 
And THRISTY give to drinke." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 10. st. 38. 
" Is this the ioy of armes ? be these the parts 
Of glorious knighthood, after blood to thrust ? " 

Ibid, book 3. cant. 3. st. 29.] 

Burst. 

"All is to brust thylke regj^on." 

KnygJites Tale, fol. 10. p. 1. col. 1. 
" The teares braste out of her eyen two." 

Doctour of FJiysickes Tale, fol. 65. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Haue here my trueth, tyl that my hert breste." 

Frankelyns Tale, fol. 52. p. 1. col. 2. 
" And in his brest the heaped woe began 
Out BRUSTE." TroyluSy boke 4. fol. 183. p. 2. col. 1. 

"Brosten is mine herte." Hido, fol. 213. p. 1. col. 2. 

" And with that worde he brest out for to wepe." 

Lydgate, Lyfe of our Lady, p. 78. 

" The gi-eat statue 

Tell to the erthe and braste on peces smale." Ibid. p. 139. 

" The false idolis in Egipte fell downe 

And all to braste in peces." Ibid. p. 147. 

" Wherefore his mother of very tender herte 

Out BRASTE on teres." Ibid. p. 167. 

" The blood braste out on euery syde." 

Diues and Pauper, 1st Comm. cap. 2. 
" Our hotels and our wyne weren newe, and now our hotels be nygh 
brusten." — Ibid. 2d Comm. cap. 20. 

" Sampson toke the two pylers of the paynims temple, "which bare up 
all the temple, and shooke them togydre with his armes tyl they brosten, 
and the temple feU downe." — Ibid, 5th Comm. cap. 22. 
" Esau hym met, embraced hym 
And frendly did him kysse, 
They both brast forth with teares and wept." 

Genesis, ch. 33. fol. 83. p. 2. 



364 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

" Here ye wyll clap your handes and extolle the strength of truth, 
that BRESTETH out, although we Pharisais (as ye Saduces call us) 
wolde oppresse it." — Gardners Declaration ^c. against Joye^ fol. 122. 
p. 2. 

"The doloure of their heart braste out at theyr eyen." 

Bir T. More, Rye liar de the Thirde, p. 65. 

" Such mad rages runne in your heades, that forsaking and brusting 
the quietnesse of the common peace, ye haue heynously and tray- 
torously encamped your selfe in fielde." — Sir John Cheke. Hurt of 
Sedition. 

[" No gate so strong, no locke so firme and fast. 

But with that percing noise flew open quite, or brast." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 8. st. 4. 
" Still, as he fledd, his eye was backward cast, 
As if his feare still followed him behynd : 
Als flew his steed, as he his bandes had brast." 

Ibid, book 1. cant. 9. st. 31.] 

Thorp. 

" There stode a thrope of syght ful delectable 
In whiche poore folke of that village 
Hadden her beestes." — Gierke of Oxenf. Tale, fol. 46. p. 1. col. 2. 

"As we were entring at the thropes ende." 

Parsons Prol. fol. 100. p. 2. col. 1. 

So of ^pev6TLKo^ the Italians made Farnetico ; and of Far- 
netico we make Frantick ; and of Chermosino we make Crim- 
son.^ In all languages the same transposition takes place; 
as in the Greek Kapha and KpaSir}, &c. And the Greeks might 
as well have imagined these io be two diflferent words, as our 
etymologists have supposed board and broad to be; though 
there is not the smallest difference between them, except this 
metathesis of the letter r : the meaning of board and broad 
being the same, though their modern application is different. 

F. — Well. Be it so. I think your account of brawn has an 



^ [So in Italian : Ghirlanda, Grillanda. — Orlando, Roldano, Rolando. 
" llow my blood cruddles ! " — Dryden. Ctklipiis, act 1. sc. 1.] 
['* I will not be cruhbed.'' — Col. inison, in the House of Commons. 
" Crulle was his here." — Millers Tale, 3314. — Hd.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 365 

advantage over Junius and Skinner : ^ for your journey is mucli 
shorter and less embarrassed. But I beg it may be understood, 
that I do not intirely and finally accede to every thing which I 
may at present forbear to contest. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 



F. — I SEE the etymological use you would make of the finals 
D, T, and N. But you said, early in our conversation, that 
WRONG was a past participle, as well as right ; yet wrong does 
not fall within any of those three classes. 

H. — True. It belongs to a much more numerous and less 
obvious class of participles; which I should have been sorry 
to enter upon, till you had been a little seasoned by the 
foregoing. 

Wrong — is the past participle of the verb To Wring, Ppmjan, 
torquere. The word answering to it in Italian is Torto, the 



^ Junius says — " Buaw]^, callum ; inde Brmon of a boar est callum 
aprugnum. Yidentur autem beawn istud Angli desumpsisse ex ac- 
cusativo Gr. Troopos, callus ; ut ex jrcopov, per quandam contractionem et 
literse e, transpositionem, primo fuerit Trpoov, atque inde beawn." 

Skinner says — " Brawn, pro Apro, ingeniose deflectit amicus quidam 
doctissimus a Lat. Jjprugna, supple Caro ; rejecto initiali A, p in B 
mutato, G eliso, et A finali per metathesin tov u premisso. 

'' 2. Brawn autem pro callo declinari posset a Gr. 7r<opo)fia, idem sig- 
nante ; tt in /3 mutato, <o priori propter contractionem eliso, a> posteriori 
in AU, et M in n facillimo deflexu transeunte. 

" 3. Mallem tamen brawn, pro Apro, a Teut. JBrauseji, fremere; vel a 
Brummen, murmurare. Sed neutrum placet. 

" 4. Beawn etiara sensu vulgatissimo callum aprugnum signat. Vir 
rev. deducit a Belg. Beer^ aper, et RauWy Rouw^ in obliquis Mauwen, 
Rouwen, crudus : quia exteri omnes hujus cibi insueti (est enim Angliae 
nostrse peculiaris) camera hanc pro crudo habent ; ideoque modo co- 
quunt, modo assant, modo frigunt, modo pinsunt. Sed obstat, quod 
nullo modo verisimile est, nos cibi nobis peculiaris, Belgis aliisque gentibus 
fere ignoti nomen ab insuetis sumsisse. 

" 5. Possit et deduci (licet nee hoc plane satisfaciat) ab A.-S. Baji, 
aper, et jiun, contr. pro jaunnen vel ge-fiunnen, concretus, q. d. Barrun 
(i. e.) pars Apri maxima concreta, pars durissima." 



366 . OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

past participle of the verb Torquere; whence the French also 
have Tort. It means merely Wi^ungj or Wrested from the 
RIGHT or Ordered — line of conduct. 

F, — If it means merely Wrung, the past participle of To 
Wring, why is it not so written and pronounced? Doctor 
Lowth, in his account of the English verbs 

H. — O^ my dear Sir, the bishop is by no means for our 
present purpose. His Introduction is a very elegant little 
treatise, well compiled and abridged for the object which alone 
he had in view; and highly useful to Ladies and Gentlemen for 
their conversation and correspondence; but affording no assist- 
ance whatever to reason or the human understanding : nor did 
he profess it. In the same manner an intelligent tasty miUiner, 
at the court end of the town, may best inform a lady, what the 
fashion is, and how they wear the things at present ; but she 
can give her little or no account perhaps of the materials and 
manufacture of the stuffs in which she deals; — nor does the lady 
wish to know. 

The bishop's account of the verbs (which he formed as well 
as he could from B. Jonson and Wallis) is the most trifling 
and most erroneous part of his performance. He was not him- 
self satisfied with it ; but says, — ^' This distribution and account, 
if it be just J^ 

He laid down in the beginning a false rule : and the con- 
sequent irregularities, with which he charges the verbs, are 
therefore of his own making. 

Our ancestors did not deal so copiously in Adjectives and 
Participles, as we their descendants now do. The only method 
which they had to make a past participle, was by adding ed 
or EN to the verb : ^ and they added either the one or the 
other indifferently, as they pleased (the one being as regular 

^ [" Being a people very stubborne and untamed, or if it were ever 
tamed, yet now lately liaving quite siiooken off their yoake." — Spenser's 
View of the State of Ireland. Todd's Edit. 1805. p. 303. 
"The shepheards boy (best knowen by that name)." 

Spenser. Colin Clouts come home a^en^ 1st line. 
" That every breath of heaven suaked it." — T. Qneene, b. I.e. 4. st. 5. 
" Who reapcs the harvest sowen by his foe, 

SowEN in bloodie field, and bought with woe." — lb. b. 1. c. 4. st. 42. 
" Old loves, and warrcs for ladies doen by many a lord." 

Ibid, book 1. cant. .5. st. 3. 



CH. IV.] 



OF ABSTRACTION, 



367 



as the other) to any verb which they employed : and they 
added them either to the indicative mood of the verb_, or to 
the past tense. Shak-ed or Shak-en^ Smytt-ed or Smytt-en, 
Grow-ed' or Grow-eUj Hold-ed or Hold-en^ Stung-ed or Stung- 
en, Buyld-ed or Buyld-en, Stand-ed or Stand-en, Mow-ed or 
Mow-en f Know-ed or Know- en, Throw-ed or Throw-en, Sow- 
ed or Sow-en, Com-ed or Com-en, were used by them in- 
differently. But their most usual method of speech was to 
employ the past tense itself, without participializing \i, or 
making a participle of it by the addition of ed or en. So 
likewise they commonly used their Substantives without ad- 
jectiving them, or employing those adjectives which (in imita- 
tion of some other languages and by adoption from them) we 
now employ. 

Take as one instance (you shall have more hereafter) the verb 
To Heave, J^eapan. 

By adding ed to the Indicative,, they had the par- 
ticiple Heaved 

By changing d to t, mere matter of pronunciation . . Heaft 

By adding en, they had the participle Heaven 

Their regular past tense was (J^aj: J^op) ...... Hove 

By adding ed to it, they had the participle .... Hoved 

By adding en, they had the participle Hoven 

And all these they used indifferently. The ship (or any thing 
else) was 

Heaved or Heaved * , , , 

And these have 

left behind them in 
our modern lan- 
y guage, the suppo- ^ 
sed substantives, 
but really unsus- 
pected Participles 



Heaft 

Heaven 

Hove 

Hoved or Hov^d 



Hoven : 



Head 

Heft 

Heaven 

Hoof, Huff, and the 

diminutive Hovel 
Howve or Hood, 

Hat, Hut 
Haven, Oven. 



Thou wouldst have heard the cry that wofull England made ; 
Eke Zelands piteous plaints, and Hollands touen heare." 

Spenser. The Mourning Muse of Thestylis. 
That kiss went tingling to my very heart. 
When it was gone, the sense of it did stay ; 
The sweetness cling'd upon my lips all day." 

BryderCs Marriage A-la-Mode, act 2. sc. 1.] 



368 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

You will observe that this past tense T^ap^ Dof^ Hove, was 
variously written, as Heff, Hafe, Howve. 

" Whan Lucifer was heff in heuen 
And ought raoste haue stonde in euen." 

Gower, fol. 92. p. 2. col. 2. 
" And Arcite anon his honde up hafe." 

Knyglites Tale, fol. 8. p, 2. col. 1. 
" Yet hoved ther an hundred in howve s of silke 
Sergeaunts yt besemed that seruen at the barre." 

Vision of F. 'Ploug'hman, fol. 4. p. 1. 
'' No we nece myne, ye shul wel understonde, 
(Quod he) so as ye women demen al, 
That for to holde in lone a man in honde 
And hym her lefe and dere hert cal, 
And maken hym an howue aboue a call, 
I mene, as loue another in this mene whyle, 
Slie doth herselfe a shame, and hym a gyle." 

Troylus, boke 3. fol. 176. p. 2. col. 2. 
*' Nowe, sirs, quod this Oswolde the Eeue, 
I pray you al, that ye not you greue 
That I answere, and som dele set his houfe 
For lefull it is with force, force of shoufe." 

Meue8 Prol. fol. 15. p. 2. col. I. 

N.B. In some copies, it is written Howue. 

To set his Houfe or Howue j is equivalent to what the Miller 
says before, 

*' For I woU tell a legende and a lyfe 
Both of a carpenter and hys wyfe, 
Howe that a clerke set a wryglites capped 

Millers Tale, fol. 3 2. p. 1. col. 1. 
" In this case it shal be very good to make a perfume underneth ol the 
HOUE of an asse." — Byrtli of Mankynde, fol. 30. p. 1. 

" Also fumigation made of the yes of salt fysshes, or of the houe of a 
horse."— /ii^. fol. 33. p. 1. 

" Strcwe the powder or asshes of a calfes houe burnt." 

Ibid. fol. 54. p. 2. 
" The stone houed always aboue the water." 

Ilistorie of Prince Arihur, 1st part, ch. 44. 
" Monkes and chanoncs and suche other that use grete ouches of syluer 
and golde on theyr copes to fastene theyr uodes ayenst the wynde." — 
Dines and Pauper, 7th Comm. cap. 12. 



GH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 369 

If you should find some difficulties (I cannot think they will 
be great) to make out to your satisfaction the above derivations ; 
it will be but a wholesome exercise ; and I shall not stop now to 
assist in their elucidation ; but will return to the word wrong. 
I have called it a past participle. It is not a participle. It 
is the regular past tense of the verb To Wring. But our 
ancestors used a past tense^ where the languages with which 
we are most acquainted use a participle : and from the gram- 
mars of the latter (or distribution of their languages) our 
present grammatical notions are taken : and I must there- 
fore continue with this word (and others which I shall 
hereafter bring forward) to consider it and caU it a past 
participle. 

In English^ or Anglo-Saxon (for they are one language), 
the past tense is formed by a change of the characteristic 
letter of the verb. By the characteristic letter I mean the 
vowel or diphthong which in the Anglo-Saxon immediately 
precedes the Infinitive termination an, can, lan; or jan, 
jean, jian. 

To form the past tense of Ppmjan, To Wring (and so of 
other verbs), the characteristic letter i or y was changed to a 
broad. But, as different persons pronounced differently, and 
not only pronounced differently, but also used different written 
characters as representatives of their sounds ; this change of the 
characteristic letter was exhibited either by a broad, or by o, or 
by u. 

From Alfred to Shakespeare, both inclusively, o chiefly 
prevailed in the South, and a broad in the North. During 
the former part of that period, a great variety of spelling appears 
both in the same and in different writers. Chaucer complains 
of this : 

" And for there is so greate diuersyte 
In Englyshe, and in writynge of our tonge." 

Troylus, boke 5. fol. 300. p. 1. col. 1. 

But since that time the fashion of writing in many instances 
has decidedly changed to ou and u ; and in some, to oa and oo 
and Ai. 

But, in our inquiry into the nature of language and the 
meaning of words, what have we to do with capricious and 

2 B 



370 



OF ABSTRACTION. 



[part II. 



mutable fashion ? Fashion can only help us in our commerce 
with the world to the rule (a necessary one I grant) of 

Loquendum ut vulgus. 

But this same fashion, unless we watch it well^ will mislead us 
widely from the other rule of 

Sentiendum ut sapientes. 

F. — Heretic ! What can you set up, in matter of language, 
against the decisive authority of such a writer as Horace ? 

" Usus, 



Quem penes arbitrinm est et jus et norma loquendi." 

' H. — I do not think him any authority whatever upon this 
occasion. He wrote divinely : and so Vestris danced. But do 
you think our dear and excellent friend, Mr. Cline, would not 
give us a much more satisfactory account of the influence and 
action, the power and. properties of the nerves and muscles by 
which he performed such wonders, than Vestris could? who, 
whilst he used them with such excellence, did not perhaps know 
he had them. In this our inquiry, my dear Sir, we are not 
poets nor dancers, but anatomists. 

F. — Let us return then to our subject. 

H. — To the following verbs, whose characteristic letter is i, 
the present fashion (as Dr. Lowth truly informs us) continues 
still to give the past tense in o. 



Abide 

Drive 

Ride 

Rise 

Shine 

Shrive 



Abode 

— - — Drove ^ 

Rode 

Rose 

Shone 

Shrove 



Smite 

Stride 

Strive 

Thrive 

Write 

Win 



Smote 

Strode 

Strove 

Throve 

Wrote 

Won 



^ [" What franticke fit, quotli lie, hath thus distraught 
Thee, foolish man, so rash a doome to give ? 
What iiistice ever other iudgemcnt tauglit, 
But he should dye, who merites not to live ? 
None els to death this man despayring duive 
But his ownc guiltie mind, deserving death." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. ciuit. 9. st. 38. 



Todd's Edit. 



CH. IV.J Of ABStRACtlON. 371 

To whicli he properly adds (though no longer in fashion) 

Chide Chode 

And Climb Clomb 

" Jacob CHODE with Laban." — Genesis xxxi. 36. 

" And the people chode with Moses." — N'umb. xx. 3. 

" And shortly clomben up all tlire." 

Millers Tale, fol. 14. p. 1. col. 2. 
" Sens in astate thou clomben were so hye." 

Monkes Tale, fol. 87. p. 2. col. 1. 
" The Sonne he sayde is clombe up to heuen." 

Tale ofNonnes Priest, fol. 90. p. 1. col. 1. 
" So effated I was in wantonnesse. 
And CLAMBE upon the fychell whele so hye." 

Testam. of Creseyde, fol. 204. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Up I CLAMBE with mucho payne." 

M Boke of Fame, fol. 297. p. 2. col. 1. 
" High matters call our muse ; inviting her to see 
As well the lower lands, as those where lately she 
The Cambrian mountains clome." — Poly-olbion, song 7. 
" It was a Satyr's chance to see her silver hair 
Flow loosely at her back, as up a cliff she clame." 

Ibid, song 28. 
[" Who, well them greeting, humbly did requight, 

And asked, to what end they clomb that tedious hight ? " 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 10. st. 49. 

" Which to behold he clomb up to the bancke." 

Ibid, book 2. cant. 7. st. 57. 
" Tho to their ready steedes they clombe full light." 

Ibid, book 3. cant. 3. st. 61. 
" She to her waggon clombe : clombe all the rest. 

And forth together went." Ibid, book 3. cant. 4. st. 31. 

'* Then all the rest into their coches clim." 

Ibid, book 3. cant. 4. st. 42. 
" And earely, ere the moiTow did upreare 
His deawy head out of the ocean raaine, 

" That the bold prince was forced foote to give 
To his first rage, and yeeld to his despight : 
The whilest at him so dreadfully he drive. 
That seem'd a marble rocke asunder could have rive." 

Faerie Queene, book 5. cant. 11. st. 5.] 
2 b 2 



372 OP ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

He up arose, as halfe in great disdaine, . 

And CLOMBE unto his steed." — Faerie QMeewe,book3.cant.4.st.61. 

" Unto his lofty steede he clombe anone." 

Ibid, book 4. cant. 5. st. 46. 

" Thence to the circle of the moone she clambe, 
Where Cynthia raignes in everlasting glory." 

Ibid. Two cantos of Mutahilite, cant. 6. st. 8.] 

You will please to observe that the past participles of the 
above verbs Abide, Drive, Shrive, and Ride, besides the sup- 
posed substantives drift^ shrift^ (which we before noticed) 
furnish also the following ; viz. 

Abode, i. e. Where any one has Abided. 

Drove, i. e. Any number of animals Driven. 

Shrove — As Shrove-tide. i. e. The time when persons are 
Shrived or Shriven. 

Ho AD. i. e. Any place Ridden over. This supposed sub- 
stantive ROAD, though now so written, (perhaps for distinction 
sake, to correspond with the received false notions of language) 
was formerly written exactly as the past tense. Shakespeare, 
as well as others^ so wrote it. 

" The martlet 



Euilds in the weather, on the outward wall, 
Euen in the force and rode of casualtie." 

Merchant of Venice, (1st Folio) p. 172. 

" Here I reade for certaine that my ships 

Are safelie come to rode." — Ibid. p. 184. 
" A theeuish lining on the common rode." — As you like it, p. 191. 

" I thinke this is the most villanouse house in al London rode for 
fleas."— 1*«J Part Henry IF. p. 53. 

" Neuer a man's thought in the world keepes the RODE-way better 
than thine."— 26/ Fart Henry IF. p. 80. 

" This Dol Tearesheet should be some rode, I warrant you, as com- 
mon as the way betweene S. Alban's and London." — lb. p. 81. 

" I haue alwaye be thy beast, and thou haste alwaye roden on me, 
and I serued the neuer thus tyll now." 

Bines and Pauper, 9th Comra. cap. 5. 

" They departed and road into a valey, and there they met with a 
sqiuer tliJlt koade upon a liackncy." 

Ilistorie of P. Arthur, 3d part, ch. 66. 



CH. IV.] 



OF ABSTRACTION. 



373 



[ " Now, strike j^our sailes, yee ioUy mariners, 
Tor we be come unto a quiet rode." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 12. st. 42. 

" Such was that hag which with Duessa roade." 

Ihid. book 4. cant. 1. st. 31.] 

But, together with the unfashionable Clomb and Chode, the 
bishop should also have noticed, that by a former (and gene- 
rally not more distant) fashion, the following verbs also (though 
now written with a, u, ou, or i short) gave us their past tense 
in o.^ 



Begin 

Bid 

Forbid 

Bind 

Bite 



Brink 
Find 
Fl/ing 
Fly 
Give 
Glide 
Ring 
Rive 
[Shine 
Shrink 



Begon 
Bod 
Forhode 
Bond 
Bote 
Clonge 
Bronk 
Fond 
Flong 
Flow 
Gove 
Glode 
Rong 
Rove 
Sho7ie] 
Shronk 
Song 



Slide 
Sling 



Spring • 

Stick 

Sting 

Stink 

Strike 

Swim 

Swing 

Swink 

Will 

JFind 

Wit 

Wring 

Yield 



Sonk 

Slode 

Slong 

Sjpon 

Sprong 

Stoke, Stock 

Stong 

Stonk 

Stroke 

Sworn 

Swong 

Bwonh 

Woll 

Wond 

Wot 

Wrong 

Yold, 



Begin. 

An hyne that had hys hyre ere he begonne." 

Vision of B\ Bloughnan, pass. 15. fol. 74. p. 1. 



^ [Mr. Tooke has added the following in the margin ; — Hear, Hard; 
Bread, Brad; Brip, Drop, or Dripped; Eat, Ate; Bylban ; String; 
Thring. 
Also To Mete. 

" For not by measure of her owne great mynd 
And wondrous worth, she mott my simple song." 

SpenseVi Colin Clouts come home again."] 



374 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" The mightie God, which unbegonne 
Stont of hymselfe, and hath begonne 
All other thinges at his wi][:'—Gower, lib. 8. fol. 183. p. 2. col. 2. 

" His berde was well begonne for to spring." 

Knyghtes Tale, fol. 7. p. 1. col. 2. 

" Now I praye the for Goddes sake for to perfourme that thou haste 
BEGONNEN." — Biues and FaupeVy 4th Comm. cap. 1. 

*' This doctrine for priestes marriages tendeth to the ouerthrowe of 
Chrisles relligion &c. And bothe this and all other lyke newe fangled 
teachynges be now euidently knowen, to haue begon with lecherie, to 
haue continued with couetise, and ended in treason." — Dr. Martin , De^ 
dication to Queene Marie. 

" The temple of God in Hierusalem was begon by Dauyd and fynyshed 
by Salomon." — True Dyfferences, ^c. By Lord Stafforde. 

" Polow this godd worke begon." 

A Declaration of Christe, JBy JoTian HopeTy cap. 13. 
*' God will, as he hath begon, continue your hignes in felicitie." 

An Epitome of the Kynges Title ^c. (1547.) 

[ " But this same day 

Must end that worke the Ides of March begun." ^ 

Juliui Ccesar, p. 128. col. 1.] 

BlD.« 

" Whan Christe himselfe hath bode pees 

And set it in his testament." — Gower, Prol. fol. 2. p. 1. col. 2. 
" He was before the kynges face 

Assent and boden." — Ibid. lib. 1. fol. 24. p. 1. col. 1. 
** And saith, that he hymselfe tofore 
Thinketh for to come, and bod therfore 
That he him kepe."— T^i^. lib. 2. fol. 32. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Whan Loue al this had boden me." 

llo)n. of the Hose, fol. 133. p. 1. col. 1. 
" He etc of the foeboden tree." 

Lydgate, Lyfe of our Lady, boke 2. p. 37. 
**Hadde he bode them stone liyr, he hadde sayd ayenst his owne 
prechynge." — Diues and Pauper, 6th Comm. cap. 6. 



^ [To this passage the sapient Malone subjoins the following note : 
** Our autliour ought to have written — Began. For this error, I have no 
doubt, he is himself answerable."] 

' [Bod is used as the preterite in Norfolk. — Ed.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 375 

" For couetyse Nachor was stoned to deth, for he stalle golde and 
clothe ayenst Goddes forbode." — Biues and Fauper, 9th Comm. cap. 4. 
" But yet Lots wife for looking backe 
Which was to her forbod 
Was tumde into a pyUer salt 

By mightie worke of God." — Genesis^ ch. 19. fol. 39. p. I. 
" Up is she go 
And told hym so 

As she was bode to say." — Sir T. Mores Worhes. 
[ " So piercing through her closed robe a way, 
His daring thought to part forbodden got." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, translated ly R. C. Esq. 
1594. cant. 4. st. 28.] 
Bind. 
" But Jupiter, which was his sonne, 

And of full age, his father bonde." — Gotoer, fol. 88. p. 1. col. 1. 
** He caught hir by the tresses longe 
With the whiche he bonde both hir annes." 

Ibid. lib. 5. fol. 114. p. 2. col. 1. 
" And with a chayne unuisible you bonde 
Togider bothe twaye." 

Chaucer, Blacke Knyghte, fol. 290. p. 2. col. 2. 
" The fende holdeth theym full harde bounde in his boundes as his 
chatties and his thralles." — Biues and Pauper, 1st Comm. cap. 35. 

" Moche more it is nedeful for to unbynde this doughter of Abraham 
in the sabbat from the harde bounde in the whiche Sathanas had holden 
her BOUNDEN xviii yere longe." — Ibid. 3d Comm. cap. 14. 

*' Onely bodely deth may departe them, as ayenst the bounde of wed- 
loke. Goostly deth breketh that bounde." 

Ibid. 6th Comm. cap. 7. 
" God bonde man to haue cure of woman in hyr myschief." 

Ibid. 6th Comm. cap. 24. 
" The moneye that thou hydest in the erthe in waste is the raunsome 
of the prysoners and of myscheuous folke for to delyuere them out of 
pryson and out of boundes, and helpe them out of woo." 

Ibid. 7th Comm. cap. 12. 
" He hath leffte us a sacrament of his blessid body the whiche we are 
bond to use religiously." 

A Beclaracion of Christe. By Jolian Iloper, cap. 8. 
[ " Upon a great adventure he was bond, 
That greatest Gloriana to him gave." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 1. st. 3. Todd's Edit. 



376 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" Therefore since mine he is, or free or bond, 
Or false or trew, or living or else dead." 

Faerie Queene, b. 1. c. 12. st. 28.] 
" And I will make my band wyth him, 
An euerlasting band, 
And wyth his future seede to come 

That euermore shall stande." — Genesis, ch. 17. fol. 33. p. 1. 

" Sister, proue such a wife. 

As my thoughts make thee, and as my farthest band 
Shall passe on thy approofe." — Antmy and Cleopatra, p. 352. 
" Tell me, was he arrested on a band ? '* 
" Not on a band, but on a stronger thing — a chain." 
" I, Sir, the sergeant of the band ; he that brings any man to answer 
it, that breakes.his band." — Comedy of Brrors, p. 94. 

Bite. 

He BOTE his lips, 



And wringing with the fist to wrek himself he thought." 

Vision of P. Ploughman, pass. 6. fol. 21. p. 2. 
" Whan A.dam of thilke apple bote, 
His swete morcell was to hote." 

Cower, lib. 6. fol. 127. p. 1. col. 2. 
" Whan a mannes sone of Eome sholde be hanged, he prayed his fader 
to kysse hym, and he bote of his faders nose." 

Piues and Pauper, 7th Comm. cap. 7. 
*' The hart went about the table round, as he went by other hordes the 
white brachet bote him by the buttocke and pulled out a peece." — 
Historie of Prince Arthur, 1st part, chap. 49. 

" Bartopus was hanged upon a galos by the waste and armys, and by 
hym a mastyfe or great curre dogge, the whyche as soon euer he was 
smytten, bote uppon the sayde Bartopus, so that in processe he all to 
rent h.^m:'— Fabian, fol. 156. p. 2. col. 2. 

" He frowned as he wolde swere by cockes blode, 
He BOTE the lyppe, he loked passynge coye." 

Skelton, p. 68. (Edit. 1736.) 
" The selfe same hounde 
Might the confound 
That his own lord bote 

Might bite asunder thy throte." — Ibid. p. 224. 

Cling. 

" And than tlie knyghtes dyde upon hym a cloth of sylke whiche for 
haboundaunce of blode was so clonoe to hym that at the pullynge of it 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 377 

was an hondred folde more payne to hym than was his scoui'gynge." — 
Nychodemus Gos^ell, ch. 6. 

Drink. 
*' But with stronge wine which he dronke 
Porth with the trauaile of the daie 
Was Dronke."— G^OM;er, lib. 2. fol. 33. p. 1. col. 1. 
" And thus full ofte haue I bought 
The lie, and dronke not of the wyne." 

Ibid. Hb. 3. fol. 53. p. 1. col. 2. 
" They nolde drinke in no maner wyse 
No drinke, that dronke might hem make," 

Sompners Tale, fol. 48. p. 1. col. 2. 
*'Noe DRANKE wyne soo that he was dronke, for he knewe not the 
myght of the wyne." — JDiues and Paicper, 4th Comm. cap. 1. 
*' My Ike newe my Iked dronke fastynge." 

Castel ofHelth, fol. 14. p. 2. 
Find. 
" Thus was the la we deceiuable. 
So ferforth that the trouth fonde 
Kescous none." — Gower, lib. 2. fol. 37. p. 1. col. 1. 
** Among a thousande men yet fonde I one, 
Eut of all women fonde I neuer none." 

Marchauntes Tale^ fol. 33. p. 1. coh 2. 
[" Thence shee brought into this Paery lond, 
And in an heaped furrow did thee hyde ; 
Where thee a ploughman all unweeting fond." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 10. st. 66. Todd's edit.] 

Fling. 

" And made him blacke, and reft him al his songe 
And eke his speche, and out at dore him flonge 
Unto the di^\xt\:'— Manciples Tale, fol. 92. p. 2. col. 2. 

"Matrons flong gloues, ladies and maids their scarffes." 

Coriolanus, p. 11. 

" And Duncan's horsest 

Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, 
Turn'd wilde in nature, broke their stalls, flong out. 
Contending 'gainst obedience." — Macbeth, p. 138. 
[" At last whenas the Sarazin perceiv'd 

How that straunge sword refusd to serve his neede, 

But, when he stroke most strong, the dint deceiv'd ; 

He flong it from him." — Faerie Queene, book 2. cant. 8. st. 49. 



378 OP ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" So when the lilly-handed Liagore 

whereof wise Pseon sprong, 

Did feele his pulse, shee knew there staied still 

Some little life his feeble sprites emong ; 

Which to his mother told, despeyre she from her flong." 

Faerie Queene, book 3. cant. 4. st. 41. 
" A dolefull case desires a dolefiill song, 
Without vaine art or curious complements ; 
And squallid fortune, into basenes flong. 
Doth scome the pride of wonted ornaments." 

Spenser, Teares of the Muses.l 
Fly. 
" And the fowles that flowe forth." 

Vision of P. FlougJimaUy fol. 44. p. 1. 
" But this Neptune his herte in vayne 
Hath upon robberie sette. 
The Brid is flowe, and he was let. 
The fayre maide is hym escaped." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 117. p. 1. col. 2. 
" But I dare take this on honde, 
If that she had wynges two. 
She wolde haue flowen to hym tho." 

Ibid. lib. 5. fol. 104. p. 1. col. 1. 
" He FLOWE fro us so swyfte as it had ben an egle." 

Nychodemus Gospelly ch. 15. 
Give. 
*' Hadde suffrid many thingis of ful manye lechis, and hadde goue 
alle hir thingis, and hadde not profited eny thing." 

Mark, ch. v. (v. 26.) 
" Forsoth the traitour hadde goue to hem a signe." 

Ibid. ch. xiv. (v. 44.) 
" He seide to hem it is gouun to you to knowe the misterie, ether 
priuyte, of the rewme of God." — Ibid. ch. iv. (v. 11.) 
" Forsothe it shal be gouun to him that hath." 

Ibid. ch. iv. (v. 25.) 
" The kynge counsailed in the case, 
Therto hath youen his assent." 

Goicer, lib. 1. fol. 14. p. 1. col. 1. 
" With that the kynge, right in his place. 
An erledome, whiche than of Eschete 
Was late falle into his honde, 
Unto this knight, with rente and londe. 
Hath TOUE." Ibid, lib. 1. fol. 26. p. 2. col. 2. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 379 

" Pallas wMche is the goddesse 
And wife to Mars, of wliom prowesse 
Is YOUE to these worthy knightes." 

Gower, Hb. 5. fol. 117. p. 1. col. 1. 
" The high maker of natures 
The worde to man hath yotje alone." 

Ibid. Ub. 7. fol. 169. p. 2. col. 2. 

Glide. 
" She GLODE forth as an adder doth." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 105. p. 1. col. 1. 
" The vapour, which that fro the erthe glode 
Maketh the sonneto seme mddy and brode." 

Squiers Tale, fol. 26. p. 2. col. 1. 

[ " fiercely forth he rode. 

Like sparke of fire that from the andvile glode." 

Faerie Queene, book 4. cant. 4. st. 23.] 

Ring. 

" If he maie perce hym with his tonge, 
And eke so loude his belle is konge." 

Gower, lib. 2. fol. 49. p. 2. col. 2. 
" The rynges on the temple dore they ronge." 

Knyghtes Tale^ fol. 8. p. 2. col. 1. 
" A fooles beUe is soone ronge." 

Horn, of the JRose, fol. 145. p. 1. col. 2. 
" They wyll not suffre theyr belles be RON gen but they haue a certayn 
moneye therfore." — JDiues and Fauper, 7th Comm. cap. 23. 

" Be man or woman deed and doluen under claye, he is soone forgeten 
and out of mynde passed a waye. Be the belles ronge and the masses 
BONGE he is soone forgeten." — Ibid. 8th Comm. cap. 12. 
" The great Macedon, that out of Persie chased 
Darius, of whose huge power all Asia rong, 
In the rich arke Dan Homers rimes he placed, 
Who fained iestes of heathen princes song." 

Earl of Surreys Songes and Sonets, fol. 16. p. 1. 
*' Than shall ye haue the belles rong for a miracle." 

Sir T. More's Works. A Dialogue &c. p. 134. 

["It is said, the evill spirytes that ben in the regyon of thayre, 

doubte moche when they here the belles RON gen : and this is the 

cause why the belles ben rongen when it thondreth, and when grete 

tempeste and outrages of weather happen." 

Golden Legend, by W. de Worde.] 



OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Rive. 

" And for dispayre, out of his witte he sterte 
And ROUE hymselfe -anon throughout the herte." 

Leg. of Good Women, Cleopatra, fol. 210. p. 1. col. 3. 
** Therewith the castle roue and walls brake, and fell to the earth." — 
Historie of Pr. Arthur, 1st part, ch. 40. 

*' He ROUE himselfe on his owne sword." — Ibid. ch. 42. 
" The thick mailes of their halbeards they earned and roue in sun- 
der." — Ibid. 1st part, ch. 54. 

" The boore turned him sodainely and roue out the lungs and the 
heart of Sir Launcelots. horse, and or euer Sir Launcelot might get from 
his horse the boore roue him on the brawne of the thighe up to the 
buckle bone." — Ibid. 3d part, ch. 17. 

Shrink. 
" Her lippes shronken ben for age." 

* Gower, lib. 1. fol. 17. p. 1. col. 1. 

"Somtyme she constrayned and shronke her seluen lyke to the 

coramen mesure of men : and somtyme it seemed that she touched the 

heuen with the hight of her hed. And whan she houe her heed hyer, 

she perced the selfe heuen." 

Chaucer, Boecius, boke 1. fol. 321. p. 1. col. 1. 
*' Because the man that stroue with him 
Did touch the hollow place 
Of Jacob's thighe, wherein hereby 

The SHRONKEN syncwc was." — Genesis, ch. 32. fol. 83. p. 1. 

*' A nother let flee at the lorde Standley which shronke at the stroke 
and fel under the table, or els his hed had ben clefte to the tethe : for 
as shortely as he shranke, yet ranne the blood aboute hys eares." — Sir 
T. More. Rycharde the thirde, p. 54. 

Sing. 
" And therto of so good measure 
He SONGE, that he the beastes wilde 
Made of his note tame and milde." 

Goioer, Frol. fol. 7. p. 1. col. 2. 
** On whiche he made on nyghtes melody 
So swetely, that all the chambre rong 
And Angelus ad virginem he song, 
And after that he songe the kynges note." 

Myllers Tale, fol. 12. p. 1. col. 2. 
** So loude SANGE that al the woode rong." 

£lacke Knyght, fol. 287. p. 2. col. 3. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 381 

" Some SONGE loude, as they had playned." 

Cuckowe and Nyghtingale, fol. 351. p. 1. col. 1. 
" For here hath ben the leude cuckowe 
And soxGEN Songes rather than hast thou." 

Ibid. fol. 351. p. 1. col. 2. 
" The Abbot songe that same daye the hye masse." 

Myracles of our Lady, p. 7. (1530.) 
" Euery note so songe to God in the chirche is a prayeynge to God." 
— Biues and Fanner, 1st Comm. cap. 59. 

" By this nygtyngale that syngeth soo swetely, I understande Cryste, 
Goddes sone, that songe to mankynde songes of endeles loue." 

Ibid. 9th Comm. cap. 4. 
"Which is SONG yerly in the chirch." 

Declaracion of Ch'iste, By Jolian Hoper, cap. 5. (1547.) 
" If Orpheus had so play'd, not to be understood, 
Well might those men have thought the harper had been wood ; 
Who might have sit him down, the trees and rocks among. 
And been a verier block than those to whom he song." 

Poly-olbioiiy song 31. 
["And to the maydens sownding tymbrels song 
In well attuned.not€s or ioyous lay." 

Fatrie Queene, book 1. cant. 12. st. 7.] 

Sink. 
"They sonken into hell." 

Vis. of P. Floughman, pass. 15. fol. 72. p. 2. 
"And all my herte is so through sonke." 

Gotcer, lib. 6. fol. 128. p. 1. col. 1. 
" And wolde God that all these rockes blacke 
Were sonken in to hell for his sake." 

Frankeleyns Tale, fol. 52. p. 2. col. 2. 
"His eyen drouped hole sonken in his heed." 

Test, of Creseyde, fol. 202. p. 2. col. 1. 

■*' The trees hath leaues, the Bowes done spread, new changed is 

the yere, 

The water brookes are cleane sonke downe, the pleasant banks 

appere." Songes and Sonets by the Earle of Surrey §rc. 

fol. 62. p. 2. (1587.) 

" Our ship is almost sonke and lost." Ibid. fol. 91. p. 2. 

Slide. 
"The sword SLOD^downe by the hawberke behinde his backe." 

Hist, of Frince Arthur, 1st part, ch. 14. 
"His sword slode down and kerned asunder his horse necke." 

Ibid. 2d part, ch. 59. 



382 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" In hys goynge oute of his shyp, and takying the land, hys one fote 
SLODE, and that other Stacke faste in the sande." 

Fabian, fol. 139. p. 2. col. 1. 

Sling. 
" This Pandarus came leapyng in at ones 
And sayd thus, who hath ben wel ybete 
To day with swerdes and slong stones." 

Troylus, boke 2. fol. 168. p. 1. col. 1. 

Spin. 

" fataU sustren, whiche or any clothe 
Me shapen was, my destyne me sponne, 
So helpeth to thys werke that is Begonne.^^ 

Troylm, boke 3. fol. 176. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Or I was borne, my desteny was sponne 

By Parcas systeme.'* Blaclce Knyglit, fol. 300. p. 1. col. 1. 

" Thende is in hym or that it be Begonne, 
Men sayne the wolle, whan it is wel sponne. 
Doth that the clothe is stronge and profitable." 

Ballade to K. Henry IF. fol. 350. p. 1. col. 1- 
" If that thy wicked wife had sponne the threade, 
And were the weauer of thy wo." 

Songes and Sonets hy the Barle of Surrey, Sfc. fol. 93. p. 2. 
[" With fine small cords about it stretched wide, 
So finely sponne, that scarce they could be spide." 

Sjienser's Mido;potmuSj st. 45.] 

Spring. 
" Out of the flint spronge the floud that folke and beastes Dronlce." 
Vision of P. Blonghnan, pass. 15. fol. 72. p. 2. 
** And thus is mankind or manhode of matrimony sprong." 

Ibid. pass. 17. fol. 90. p. 1. 
" Tho might he great merueile see, 
Of euery toth in his degree 
Sprong up a knight with spere and shelde." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 103. p. 2. col. 2. 
" Anone there sprong up floure and gras." 

Ihid, fol. 106. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Thou shalt eke consider al the causes from whence they be sprong." 

Tale of Chaucer, fol. 76. p. 2. col. 2. 
*' Out of his graue spronge a fayre lyly." 

Myracles of our Lady, p. 22. (1530.) 



CH. IT.] OP ABSTRACTION. 383 

" From these three sonnes that Noah left, 
And others of their bloud, 
Haue SPRONGE all nacions on the earth." 

Genesis, eh. 10. fol. 19. 
" Happy it was that these heretiques spronge up in his dayes." 

Gardner's Declaration ^c. fol. 25. p. 1. 
" With our new religion new logicke is sprong furth of late." 

Dr. Martin of Friestes unlauful Mariages^ chapitre 5. p. 52, 
" Where loue his pleasant traines hath sowen 
Her beautie hath the fruites opprest, 
Ere that the buddes were sprong and blowen." 

Songes ^c. by the Earle of Surrey ^c. fol. 3. p. 2. 
" Of lingring doubts such hope is sprong." Ibid. fol. 18. p. 1. 
" Wherupon newe war sprong betwene them and us." 

Epitome of the Title ^c. (1547.) 
"From whence all knightly deeds and brave atchievements sprong." 

Foly-olhion, song 3. 
[" For both the lignage, and the certein sire 
From which I sprong, from mee are hidden yitt." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 9. st. 3. 
*' Sweete Love devoyd of villanie or ill, 
But pure and spotles, as at first he sprong 
Out of th' almighties bosom, where he nests." 

Spenser, Teares of the Muses. 
" Surely I would you had your wish : for then should not I now nede 
to bungle up yours so great a request, when presently you should haue 
sene with much pleasure, which now peraduenture you shall read with 
some doubt, lesse thynges may encrease by writyng which were so great 
in doyng, as I am more afrayd to leaue behind me much of the matter, 
than to gather up more than hath sprong of the trouth.** 

Foger Jscham's Letter to John Astely, p. 4. 
" He said ; and, mantled as he was, sprang forth. 
And seiz'd a quoit in bulk and weight all those 
Transcending far, by the Phaeacians used. 
Swiftly he swung, and from his vigorous hand 
Dismiss'd it." 

Cowper^s translation of Homer's Odyssey, p. 208.] 

Stick. 

" Thei haue anone the cofl're stoke." 

Gower, lib. 8. fol. 180. p. 1. col. 2. 
" This coflfer in to his chamber is brought 
Whiche that thei finde faste stoke." Ibid. p. 2. col. 1. 



384 OP ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" In the midest thereof was an anuile of Steele, and therein stooke a 
faii'e sworde naked by the point." 

Hist, of Frince Arthur, 1st part, eh. 3. 
" There to abyde stocked in pryson." 

Lydgate, Lyfe of our Lady, boke 2. p. 35. (1531.) 

Sting. 

"As thoughe he stongen were to the herte." 

Knyghtes Tale, fol. 2. p. 1. col. 1. 
" If cowe or calfe, shepe or oxe swel 
That any worme hath eaten or hem stonge 
Take water of this wel." Pardoners Frol. fol. 65. p. 2. col. 1. 
" I suffered to beten and bound, to be spateled and despysed, to be 
nay led to the crosse, crowned with thornes, stongen to the herte with a 
spere." — Biues and Fauper, 8th Comin. cap. 14. 

" The fende which appered in the lyknes of an adder to Eue and 
stange her full euyl." — Ibid. 10th Comm. cap. 3. • 

'' With serpents full of yre 
Stong oft with deadly payne." 

Songes S^c. hy the Earle of Surrey ^c. fol. 84. p. 1. 
" Who so euer was stong or venemyd with the poyson of the ser- 
pentes, if he lokyd upon the serpent of brasse might be helyd." 

JDeclaracion of Chrlste, By Johan Hoper, cap. 7. 
*' The people were stong with serpentes." — Ibid. cap. 7. 
[" For hardly could be hurt, who was already stong." 

Faerie Queene, book 2. cant. 1. st. 3. 
" I saw a wasp, that fiercely him defide. 
And bad him battaile even to his iawes ; 
Sore he him stong, that it the blood forth drawes." 

Spenser, Visions of the worldes vanitie.'] 

Stink. 
" Badde wedes whiche somtime stonken." 

Testament of Loue, boke 1. fol. 313. p. 1. col. 2. 
["That, through the great contagion, dii-eful deadly stonck." 

Faerie Queene, book 2. cant. 2. st. 4.] 

Strike. 

"Thou shalt strike a stroke the most dolorous that euer man stroke." 
— Hist, of Frince Arthur, 1st part, ch. 33. 

" Drew out his sword and strok him such a buffet on the helmet." 

Ibid. ch. 111. 

" They lashed together with their swords, and somtime they stroke 
and somtime they foined." — Ibid. 3d part, ch. 13. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 385 

" And wlien this man might not preuayle 
Jacob to ouerthrow, 
He Jacob stroke under the thigh." 

Genesis, ch. xxxii. fol. 82. p. 1. 
" Frets call you these, (quoth she) He fume with them : 
And with that word she stroke me on the liead." 

Taming of a Shrew, p. 216. 
"Myselfe am strooke in yeeres I must confesse." Ibid. p. 217. 
" He haue an action of battery against him, if there be any law in 
lUyria : though I stroke him first, yet it 's no matter for that." 

Twelfe Night, p. 270. 
"With endless grief perplext her stubborn breast she strake." 

Poly-olMon, song 7. 
[" Stroken this knight no strokes againe replyes." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, translated by B,. C. Esq. 
Windet 1594. p. 110. cant. 3. st. 24. 
" Lifts up his hand as at her backe he ran. 
And where she naked show'd, stroke at her there." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, p. 113. cant. 3. st. 28. 
" Methinks these holy walls, the cells, the cloysters, 
Should all have strook a secret horror on you." 

Dry den. Lorn in a Nunnery, act 5. sc. 3 . 
" And, as from chaos, huddled and deformed, 
The God strook fire, and lighted up the lamps." 

Dry den, (JEdipis, act 1. sc. 1.] 

. Swim. 

" Sweare then how thou escap'dst. 

SwoM ashore (man) like a ducke." Tempest, p. 10. 

" You neuer swom the Hellespont." 

Two Gent, of Verona, act ] . sc. 1 . 
" Put myself to mercy of the ocean, and swom to land." 

B. and Fletcher, Knight of Malta. 

" Fish under water 

Wept out their eyes of pearle, and swooM blind after." 

Camdens Remains, p. 338. 
[" The Norman usurper, partly by violence, partly by falshood, layd 
here the foundation of his monarchic in the people's blood, in which it 
hath SWOM about 500 yeares." — Lyfe of Mrs. Lucy Hutchinson, p. 4. 

*' Don Constantine de Braganza was now viceroy of India j and 
Camoens, desirous to return to Goa, resigned his charge. In a ship, 
freighted by himself, he set sail, but was shipwrecked in the gulph near 

2 c 



386 OF ASSTRACTiON. [PART II. 

the moutli of the river Mehon on the coast of China. All he had acquired 
was lost in the waves : his poems, which he held in one hand, while 
he swiMMED with the other, were all he found himself possessed of, 
when he stood friendless on the unknown shore." 

Mic. Brit. vol. iv. p. 63.] 

" The fiery Tibalt, with his sword prepar'd, 
Which, as he breatli'd defiance to ray eares, 
He swoNG about his head, and cut the windes." 

Borneo and Juliet, p. 54. 

SWINK. 

" Some put hem to the ploughe, pleden full selde. 
In settynge and sowynge swonken full harde." 

Vision of Pierce Tloughnan, fol. 1. p. 1. 
" Thei had that thei han beswonke." 

Goioer, lib. 1. fol. 22. p. 2. col. 2. 
" Aleyn waxe wery in the dawning, 
Por he had swonken aU the long nyght." 

Eeeues Tale, fol. 17. p. 1. col. 2. 
" Hast thou had fleen al nyght, or art thou DronJce, 
Or hast thou al nyght with some queen iswonke." 

Manciples Frol. fol. 91. p. 1. col. 2. 

Will. 

" And saide, if that he might acheue 
His purpos, it shall well be Yolde, 
Be so that thei hym helpe woled." 

Gower,\ih. 7. fol. 169. p. 1. col. 2. 

Wind. 

" And with the clothes of hir loue 
She Hilled all hir bedde aboute. 
And he, whiclie nothyng had in doute, 
Hir wimple wonde aboute his cheke." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 121. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Loue bounde hym in cradel and wonde in cloutes ful poure." 

JDiues and Pauper, 10th Coram, cap. 3. 



^ ["So we see tliat Princos not in gathering much money, nor in 
bearing oucr great swing, l)ut in keping of frcndes, and good lawes, line 
most merely, and raigne most surely." — R. Ascham, p. 19.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 387 

Wit. 

*' For God it wote, he satte ful ofte and Songe 
When that his shoe ful bitterly hym Wronged 

Wife of Bathes Prol. fol. 36. p. 1. col. 2.' 

Wring. 

" Hunger in hast tho hent wastour by the maw. 
And WEOXG him so bi the wombe, that his eies watred." 

Vision of Pierce FlougJiman, pass. 7. fol. 33. p. 2. 
" For whiche he wept and wroxge his honde. 
And in the bedde the blody kuyfe he Fonde.''^ 

Man of Lawes Tale, fol. 21. p. 2. col. 1. 
" So hard him wroxg of sharpe desyre the payne." 

Troylus, boke 3. fol. 210. p. 2. col. 2. 
" And but it the better be stamped, and the venomous ieuse out 
WRONGEN, it is lykely to empoysonen all tho that therof tasten." 

Testament of Lone, boke 3. fol. 333. p. 1. col. 1. 
" To moche trusted I, wel may I sayue. 
Upon your lynage, and your fay re tonge, 
And on your teares falsly out wronge." 

Chaucer, Fhillis, fol. 209. p. 1. col. 2. 
" The dome of God is lykened to a bowe, for the bowe is made of ii 
thynges, of a wronge tree and ryght strynge, &g. And as the archer in 
his Shetynge taketh the wroisge tree in hys lyfte honde, and the ryght 
strynge in his ryght honde, and draweth them atwynne" &c. — Biues 
ajid Pauper, 8th Coram, cap. 15. 

" And then Sir Palomides wailed and wrong his hands." 

Hist, of P. Arthur, 2nd part, ch. 73. 
" And with my hand those grapes I tooke 
That rype were to the show : 
And WRONGE them into Pharos cuppe 

And wyne therof did make." — Genesis, ch. 40. fol. 100, p. 1. 
" Wiues WRONG their hands." 

Songes, ^c. by the Parle of Surrey ^c. fol. 89. p. 1. 
" Give me those lines (whose touch the skilful ear to please) 
That gliding flow in state, like swelling Euphrates, 
In which things natural be, and not in falsely w^rong ; 
The sounds are fine and smooth, the sense is full and strong." 

Poly-olbion, song 21. 
" When your ignorant poetasters have got acquainted with a strange 
word, they never rest till they have 'wrong it in." 

B. Jonson, Cynthia s Revels, act 2. sc. 4. 
2 c 2 



388 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" Conuoy me, Sibyll, that I go not wrang." 

Douglas, Prol. of boke 6. p. 158. 
["But Messalina neuer more loose and dissolute in lusts, the au- 
turane being well spent, celebrated in lier house the feast of grape- 
gathering; the presses were wrong, the vessels flowed with wine, 
women danced about kirt with skins, like unto mad women, solem- 
nizing the feasts of Bacchus." 

Tacitm -Annales, translated hy Greenwey, 1622, 
boke 11. 31. p. 152. 

" Let false praise, and wroong out by praiers, be restrained, no lesse 
than malice and cruelty." — Ihid. p. 228.] 

Yield. 
*' And thus this tyranne there 
Beraft hir suche thynge, as men seyne, 
May neuer more be yolden ageyne." 

Goioer, lib. 5. fol. 114. p. 1. col. 2. 
" And glader ought his frendes be of his deth. 
Whan with honour yyolde is up the breth." 

KnygJdes Tale, fol. 11. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Ne had I er now, my swete herte dere, 
Ben YOLDE, iwis, I were nowe not here." 

Troylus, boke 3. fol. 179. p. 1. col. 1. 
" The said Charles so sharply assauted the towne of Dam, that in 
shorte processe after it was yolben unto him." — Fabian, p. 154. 

"Yf an other mannes good be not yolden ayen whan it may be 
YOLDEN, he that stale it doth noo verry penaunce." 

Lilies and Pauper, 7th Comm. cap. 12. 
[" Because to yield him love she doth deny. 
Once to me yold, not to be yolde againe." 

Faerie Queene, book- 3. cant. II. st. 17. 
" And in his hand a sickle he did hokle, , 

To reape the ripened fruits the which the earth had yold." 

Ibid. Two Cantos of Mntabilitie, cant. 7. st. 30.] 

F. — Enougli, enough. Innumerable instances of the same 
may, I grant you, be given from all our antient authors. But 
docs this import us any thing? 

H. — Surely much : if it shall lead us to the clear under- 
standing of the words we use in discourse. For, as far as we 
^Mvnow not our own meaning;^' as far as ^' our purposes are 
not endowed with words to make thein known ; *' so far we 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. S89 

" gabble like things most brutish." But the importance rises 
higher when we reflect upon the application of words to Meta- 
physics. And when I say Metaphysics ; you will be pleased to 
remember, that all general reasoning, all Politics, Law, Morality 
and Divinity, are merely Metaphysic. 

F. — Well. You have satisfied me that Wrong, however 
written, whether Wrang, Wrong, or Wrung, (like the Italian 
Torto and the French Tort) is merely the past tense (or past 
participle, as you chuse to call it) of the verb To Wring ; and 
has merely that meaning. And I collect, I think satisfactorily, 
from what you have said, that 

Song — i. e. Any thing Singed, Sang, or Sung, is the past 
participle of the verb To Sing : as Cantus is of Canere, and 
Ode of aetSo). That 
Bond ^ ") — however spelled, and with whatever subaudition 
Band > applied, is still one and the same word, and is 
Bound J merely the past participle of the verb To Bind. 
" As the custome of the lawe hem bonde." 

Lydgate, Lyfe of our Lady. (1530.) p. 29. 
*' We shall this serpent from our bondes chase." — Ibid. p. 56. 
" His power shall fro royalme to royalme 
The BONDE s stratche of his royalte 
As farre in south as any flode or any see." — Ibid. p. 156. 
"As the custome and the statute bande." — Ibid. p. 99. 
" And false goddes eke through his worchynge 
With royall might he shall also despise, 
And from her sees make hem to arise, 
And fro the bandes of her dwellynge place 
Of very force dryue hem and enchace." — Ibid. p. 155. 
"Droue theira all out of the mayne lande into isles the uttermost 
SONDES of al Great Briteigne."~J?J!?^Yoy?^e of the Kynges Title ^c. 
[" Let him (quoth he) in bonds goe plead his cace, 
Thats BOND, and fit for bondage hath a graine, 
I free was borne, and hue, and free in place 
WiU die, ere base cord hand or foot astraine. 



^ [It is questionable whether bound, a Hmit, be connected with the 
verJD To Bind : and there is also another bond, Bonba, paterfamilias, 
which forms a part of our word iiusbond or husband, whose origin is 
entirely distinct, being the present participle of Buan, Jiabitare, incolere ; 
and which furnishes another curious instance of the tendency of similar 
words to coalesce. See Additional Notes. — Ed.] 



390 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Usde to my sword, and used palmes to beare 

Is this right hand, and scornes vile gyues to weare." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, translated by H.. C. Esq, 
cant. 5. st. 42. printed 1594!.] 
And that 

Bundle — i. e. Bondelj Bond-dcelj is a compound of two par- 
ticiples Bond and bsel : i. e. a small part or parcel Bound up. 

" Papistrie being an heresie, or rather a Bondle made up of an infi- 
nite number of heresies." 

Warnyng agaynst the dangerous Practises of Pajpistes. (1559.) 

And that 

Bit *) — whether used (like Morso, Morceau, or Morsel) 
Bait J for a small piece, part, or portion of any thing ; or 
for that part of a bridle [imboccatura) which is put into a 
horse's mouth; or for that hasty refreshment which man or 
beast takes upon a journey; or for that temptation which is 
offered by treachery to fish or fool ; — is but one word differently 
spelled, and is the past participle of the verb To Bite, 
" Baits, baits, for us to bite at.'* — Sejanus, act 3. 
[" She feeling him thus bite upon the bayt, 
Yet doubting least his hold was but unsound." 

Faerie Queene, book 5. cant. 5. st. 42.] 
And that 

Battel — (a term used at Eton for the small portion of food 
which, in addition to the College allowance, the collegers receive 
from their Dames,) is Bat-bsd. And 

Bat-ful — (a favourite term of Drayton,) is a similar com- 
pound of the two participles Bat and Full. 

" That brook whose course so batful makes her mould." 

JPoly-olblon, song 10. 
" Of Bever's batful earth, men seem as though to fain, 

Eeporting in what store she multiplies her grain." — Ibid, song 13. 
" There 's scarcely any soil that fitteth by tliy side, 

Whose turf so batful is, or bears so deep a swath."— 75. song 21. 
*' Which for the batful glebe, by nature them deny'd, 

With mighty mines of coal, abundantly are blest." — Ibid, song 23. 

[" The soile, although differing somewhat in kindc, yet generally is 

wilde with woods, or unpleasant and il-fauoured with marishes : moist 

towards Gallia : more windie towards Noricum and Pannony, batful 

enough ; but bad for fruit-bearing trees." 

Ucscrij)tion of Germanie, translated from Tacitus, 
by Richard Greemvey. 1622. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 391 

" Whether or no ought we to folowe the nature of groundes that be 
BATWELL, which bringe moche more fruyte than they receyued." 

Roherte TFJiytinton, Translation of Tidlyes Offyces^ 
1534, Wynkin Worde. 

" The best advizement w^as, of bad, to let her 

Sleepe out her fill without encomberment ; 

For sleepe, they sayd, would make her battil better." 

Faerie Qiieene, book 6. cant. 8. st. 38.] 
That 
Drunk^-is the past participle of the verb To Drink : and 

Stroke — of the verb To Strike. 

Still this is but a very scanty portion of participles passing 
for substantives from the verbs in English whose characteristic 
letter is i or y. 

H. — Scanty indeed, if these were all : especially if we include, 
as we ought to do, the numerous verbs which in the Anglo-Saxon 
have the same characteristic letters. But I will produce enough 
to you ; if you wiU promise me not to be tired with their 
abundance. 

F. — That is more than I can possibly undertake ; but I do 
engage to let you know it when it happens. 

H. — Throng — is the past participle of the verb To Thring, 
Dpmjan, comprimere, constringere. 

F. — Thring ! Where is that word to be found in English ? 

H. — In the antient New Testament, in Gower, in Chaucer, in 
Douglas, and in all our old authors. 

" He was throngun of the cumpanye." — Luke, ch. 8. v. 42. 

"And Ihesu seyth, who is it that touchide me? sotheli alle men 
denyinge, Petir seide and thei that weren vai\\ him, Commaundour, 
companj^es thryngen and tourmenten thee, and thou seist, who tou- 
chide me." — Ibid. v. 45. 

*' A naked swerde the whiche she bare 
Within hir mantell priuely, 
Betwene hir hondes sodeinly 
She toke, and through hir herte it tbronge." 

Gower, lib. 7. fol. 171. p. 2. col. 1. 
" And sodainly anon this Darayan 
Gan pullen up the smocke, and in he thronge 
A great tent, a thrifty and a longe." 

Marchauntes Tale, fol. 33. p. 3. col. 2. 



393 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" For there was many a birde singyng 
Throughout the yerde al thringyng." 

Bomaunt of the Bose, fol. 123. p. 1. col. 1. 
" But in his sleue he gan to theyng 

A rasour sharpe and wel byting." — Ibid. fol. 155. p. 2. col. 3. 
" When Calcas knew this tretise shulde helde 
In consistorie amonge the Grekes sone 
He gan in thringe forthe with lordes olde 
And set hym there as he wont to done." 

Troylus, boke 3. fol. 182. p. 2. col. 2. 
" But your glory that is so narowe and so stray te throngen into so 
lytel boundes."— ^om«5, boke 2. fol. 230. p. 1. col. 2. 
" With blody speres rested neuer styl ; 
But THRONG now here now there amonge hem bothe 
That euerich other slew, so were they wroth.'* 

Annelida and Ar cite ^ fol. 170. p. 2. col. 2. 
" But of my disease me lyst now a whyle to speke, and to informe you 
in what maner of blysse ye haue me throng." 

Testament of Loue, boke 1. fol. 306. p. 1. col. 2. 
" What shal I speke the care but payne, euen lyke to hel, sore hath me 
assayled, and so ferforthe in payne me thronge, that I leue my ire is 
seer, and neuer shal it frute forth bring." 

Ibid, boke 3. fol. 332. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Amang the men he thrang, and nane him saw." 

Douglas J booke 1. p. 26. 
'' Remoif all drede, Troianis, be not agast, 
Pluk up your hartis, and heuy thouchtis doun thring." 

Ibid, p. 30. 
" The Grekis ruschand to the thak on hicht 
Sa thik thai thrang about the portis all nycht. 
That like ane wall they umbeset the yettis." 

Ibid, booke 2. p. 53. 
" The rumour is, doun thrung under this mont 
Bnceladus body with thunder lyis half ^row^." 

Ibid, booke 3. p. 87. 
" All folkis enuiroun did to the coistis thring." 

Ibid, booke 5. p. 131. 
" And euer his schynand swerd about him Swatig 
Quliil at the last in Volscens mouth he thrang." 

Ibid, booke 9. p. 292, 
'* And of hys inemys sum inclusit he, 
Bessauaiid al that thrang to the entrc : 



CH. IV.] or ABSTRACTION. 393 

Ane full he was, and witles ane nithiug, 
Persauit not Turnus Eutuliane king- 
So violentlie thring in at the yet." — Douglas, p. 804. 
" The bustuous Strake throw al the armour thrang." 

Ibid, booke 10. p. 334. 
" The matrouns and young damysellis, I wys, 
That grete desire has sic thing to behald, 
Thring to the stretis and hie wyndois thik fald." 

Ibid, booke 13. p. 472. 
" ^ATien Sir Launcelot saw his part goe to the worst, hee throng into 
the thickest presse with a sword in his hand." 

Historie of Prince ArtJmr, 3d part, ch. 127. 
" Sir Launcelot thrang in the thick of the presse." 

Ibid. 3d part, ch. 150. 
" And so it hapt when Joseph came 
His brethren them amonge, 
They stript from him his partie coate 
And then with thrust and throng 
They cast him in an emptie pit." — Genesis, ch. 37. fol. 93. p. 2. 
Strong — is the past participle of the verb To String. A 
strong man is, a man well Strung} 

" Orpheus, whose sweet harp so musically strong, 
Inticed trees and rocks to follow him along." 

Poly-olbion, song 21. 
" And little wanted, but a woman's heart 
With cries and tears had testified her smart ; 
But inborn worth, that fortune can controul. 
New STRUNG, and sti£Fer bent her softer soul." 

Dryden, Sigismunda and Guiscardo. 
[" I saw an harpe stroong all with silver twyne." 

Spenser, Buines of Time. 
" Phoebus shall be the author of my song. 
Playing on ivorie harp with silver strong." 

Spenser, Firgils Gnat. 

" nor fear I foil 

From the Phseacians, save in speed alone ; 

Por I have suffer'd hardships, dash'd and drench'd 

By many a wave, nor had I food on board 

At all times, therefore am I much unstrung." 

Cowper's translation of Homer* s Odyssey, p. 211.] 

^ [" He will the rather do it, whan he sees 

Ourselves well sinewed to our defence." — King John, p. 23.] 



394 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Bold — is the past participle of the verb To Build. 

Bolt — is the same. You seem surprised: which does 

not surprise me'; because, I imagine, you are not at all aware 
of the true meaning of the verb To Build; which has been 
much degraded amongst us by impostors. There seems there- 
fore to you not to be the least shadow of corresponding signi- 
fication between the verb and its participle. Huts and hovels, 
as we have already seen, are merely things Raised up. You may 
call them habitations, if you please ; but they are not Buildings 
(i. e. Buildens : ^) though our modern architects would fain make 
them pass for such, by giving to their feeble erections a strong 
name. Our' English word To Build is the Anglo-Saxon Bylban, 
To confirm. To establish, To make firm and sure and fast. To 
consolidate. To strengthen ; and is applicable to all other things 
as well as to dwelling places. 

" Amyd the clois undar the heuin all bare 

Stude thare that time ane mekle fare altare, 

Heccuba tbidder with hir cbilder for beild 

Ean all in vane and about the altare swarmes. 

Bot quhen she saw how Priamus has tane 

His armour so, as thoucht he had bene ying ; 

Quhat fuhche thocht, my wretchit spous and kinge, 

Mouis the now sic wappynnis for to weild ? 

Quhidder haistis thou ? quod sohe, of ne sic beild 

Haue we now myster, nor sic defendoris as the." 

Douglas^ booke 2. p. 56. 
[ " Most noble Anthony, 

Let not the peece of vertue, which is set 

Betwixt us as the cyment of our loue 

To keepe it builded, be the ramme to batter 

The fortresse of it." — Antony and Cleopatra, p. 352. col. 1.] 

And thus a man of confirmed courage, i. e. a confirmed heart, 
is properly said to be a Builded, Built, or bold man; who, 
in the Anglo-Saxon, is termed Bylb, Bylbeb, Iie-bylb, De- 
bylbeb as well as Balb. The Anglo-Saxon words Bolb and 
Bolt, i. e. Builded, Built, are both likewise used indifferently for 
what we now call a Building (i. e. Builden) or strong edifice. 

* [Such an account of the Verbal Substantive is quite inadmissible. 
See Additional Note on the Present Participle. — Ed.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTJIACTION. 395 

BoLT^ as we now apply it, is that by wliich a door, shutter, 
&c. is fastened or strengthened. 

Drop — Any thing Dripped; the past participle of To Drip, 

So DRIPPING i. e. DRIPPEN. 

Chop — Any thing Chipped; the past participle of the verb 
To Chip. 

Plot — i. e. Plighted. A plighted agreement ; any agreement 
to the performance of which the parties have plighted their faith 
to each other. 

" Pilgrames and Palmers plyght hem togyther 
Por to seke StaJ"ames and sayntes at Rome." 

Vision of P. Ploughman, fol. 1. p. 2. 

Pledge — i. e. Pleght : the past participle of the same verb 
To Plight. The thing Plighted; from the Anglo-Saxon verb 
Phhcan, Exponere vel objicere periculo, spondere, oppigne- 
rare. 

Spot ") The past participle of the verb To Spit, A.-S. 

Spout J 8pit:tan. Spot is the matter Spitten, Spate, 
or Spitted: and spout is the place whence it was Spitten or 
Spate. 

Snot ") Is the past participle of the verb To Snite,^ A.-S. 

Snout j 8nytan, emungere. To Wipe. Snot the matter 
Suited or wiped away. Snout the part Suited or wiped. 



^ [This verb remained in use up to the last century. Grew, describing 
the various uses of the tongue, says, " Nor would any one," without it, 
" be able to Snite his nose, or to sneeze : in both which actions the 
passage of the breath through the mouth being intercepted by the tongue, 
'tis forced, as it then ought to do, to go through the nose." — Cosmologia 
Sacra, 1701. p. 26. 

Mr. Tooke reverses the order in which Wachter and Ihre place these 
words ; for they derive the verb Snuiten, Snutten, from the noun Snuit, 
Snut, the Snout. And indeed we can hardly derive the Snout of a pig 
from the act of wiping. Moreover, To wipe, generally, is not an adequate 
translation of Snjrcan. " Snot est a snuiten, et hoc a snuit, nasus." 
Wachter. " Snytan, a snut, rostrum. Metaphorice de candelae pur- 
gatione." It is remarkable that this application of the same word to the 
nose and to a candle, or the nozzle of a lamp, prevails among the Eo- 
mance as well as the Teutonic dialects : see Moucher, Menage ; Muca- 
torium, Emundoria, &c., Ducange ; and Emunctorium, Canbel-j^nyTelj-, 
^Ifric's Glossary, p. 61. The derivation of Mouchoir de ecu from Mus- 
catoriwn, " quod collum defendit a inuscis," will not, I suppose, obtain 
credit, and we must be content with the homelier one, although, as 
Menage says, *' ce mot de moucher donne une vilaine image." — Ed.] 



396 



OF ABSTRACTION. 



[part II. 



" He that snites his nose, and hath it not, forfeits his face to the 
king." — Ray's Proverbial Sayings, p. 68. 

Shot 

Shotten 

Shut 

Shuttle 

Shuttle cork 

Shoot 

Shout 

Shit 

Shitten 

Shittle 

Sheet 

Scot 
Italian Scotto 
French Escot^ ecot 
Italian Schiatta 

Scout 

Scates 

Skit 

Skittish 

Dutch SCHEET 

Sketch 

Dutch SCHETS 

Italian Schizzo 
French Esquisse 
Latin Sagitta 

" About me than my swerde I belt agane, 
And scHOTE my lefte arme in my scheild all mete." 

Douglas, booke 2. p. 61. 
" Syne tuke his wand, quhare with, as that thai tel, 
The pail saulis he cauchis out of hell, 
And uthir sum thare gaith gan schete ful hot, 
Deip in the sorouful grisle hellis Tot.'' — Ihid. booke 4. p. 108. 
" All kynd defensis can Troianis prouide. 
Threw stanis doun, and shotys here and thare, 
At euery part or opin fenister." — Ihid. booke 9. p. 296. 
" The archer shetynge in this bowe is Cryste." 

Diues and 'Pauper, 8th Comm. cap. 15. 
" Eke Hanniball when fortune him outshit 
Clene from his reigne, and from all his entent." 

Songes, ^-c. By the Earle of Surrey, ^c. fol. 20. p. 1. 



All these^ so variously written, 
pronounced and applied, have but 
one common meaning : and are all 
the past participle, j-ceat, of the 
Anglo-Saxon and English verb 
8cytan, pcican. To Shite, i. e. pro- 
jicere, dejicere, To throw. To cast 
forth,* To throw out. 

Under the article sheet, Junius 
promised — " Variarum vocabuli 
pceat acceptionum exempla, Deo 
vitam viresque largiente. Lectori 
suppeditabit lexicon nostrum Anglo- 
Saxonicum.'^ But this has not been 
performed. 



CH. IV.] OP ABSTRACTION. 397 

" 'Tis one of those odd tricks whicli sorow shoots 

Out of the minde." — Antony and Cleopatra, p. 358. 
" I shall heare abide the hourely shot 

Of angiy eyes." — Cymheline, p. 370. 
" Another soul into my body shot." — Beaumont and Fletcher. 

The French used formerly this same word in the same general 
meaning — 

" Les autres Nes qui nerent mie cele par guenchies, furent entrees en 
boche d'Auie; et ce est la, ou li Braz Sain lorge chiet en la grant 
mer." — Ville Eardhuin, edit. 1601. p. 18. 

I have already said, that it is common to all the verbs whose 
characteristic letter is i or y, to form the past tense in this 
manner; and our ancestors wrote it ad libitum, either with o, 
or A broad, or ou, or oo, or u, or i short. 

That a shot — from a gun, or bow, or other machine, means 
— something Cast or Thrown forth, needs neither instance nor 
explanation to persuade you. But a shot window may require 
both. 

" And forth he goth, ielous and amerous, 
Tyl he came to the carpenters hous, 
A lytel after the cockes had ycrowe, 
And di-essed him by a shot wyndowe." 

MylUrs Tale, fol. 13. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Quharby the day was dawincj wele I knew ; 
Bad bete the fyre, and the candyll alicht, 
Syne blissit me, and in my wedis dicht ; 
Ane schot wyndo unschet ane litel On Char" 

Douglas, prol. to booke 7. p. 202. 

A SHOT window means a projected window, thrown out beyond 
the rest of the front : What we now call a Bow window. And 
this was a very common method in our antient houses (many 
of which still remain) ; and was a circumstance worth the paint- 
ing poet's notice ; as affording a much better station for the 
serenading Clerk Absolon (whom I think I now see) than that 
which Mr. Urry and Mr. Tyrwhitt assign to him.^ 



^ Mr. Urry alters the text to " shop " window. 

Mr. Tyrwhitt retains shot window; but says — "That is, I suppose, 
a window that was shut." 



398 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

When Speed (in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, p. 27.) says 
to Launce — " He to the alehouse with you presently ; where 
for one shot of five pence^ thou shalt haue five thousand wel- 
comes ; '^ what else does he say^ but that — For five pence 

Cast down, or^ For one Cast of five pence,, he shall have five 
thousand welcomes ? 

A SHOTTEN herring, is a herring which has Cast or Thrown 
forth its spawn. 

A SHOOT of a tree, (In Italian schiatta/ which is the same 
participle) is — That which the tree has Cast forth, or Thrown 
forth. 

" Quhare stude ane wod, with schoutand bewis schene." 

Douglas, bote 6. p. 189. 

A SHOUT (^^ a word," says Johnson, " of which no etymology 
is known") is no other than the same participle differently 
spelled, and applied to sound Thrown forth from the mouth. 

" The nobles bended as to Tone's statue, and the commons made a 
shower and thunder, with their caps and showts." — Coriolamcs, p. 11. 

*' You SHOOT me forth in acclamations hyperbolical, 
As if I lou'd my Httle should be dieted 
In prayses." — Ibid. p. 7. 

•' They threw their caps 

As they would hang them on the homes o' th' moone, 
Shooting their emulation." — Ibid. p. 2. 

" Unshoot the noise that banish'd Martins ; 
Repeale him." — Ibid. p. 29. 

Shut and shit are also the past tense (and therefore past 
participle) of the verb To Shite. And though, according to 
the modern fashion, we now write — To Shut the door — the 
common people generally pronounce it more properly and 
nearly to the original verb, and say — To Shet the door : Which 
means to Throw or Cast the door to. But formerly it was 

^ Ferrari derives schiatta from " Caudex, Caudico^ CioccOy Caudicatay 
Schiatta : " or {rom " Scat /criendo : '' or from '' Scapus.'' — Menage dis- 
approves these, and says — '' Crederei piutosto derivasse da Plantay 
Exsplanta, ScJdajita, Schiatta.'" And, upon second thoughts, is so well 
satisfied with this latter derivation from Tlanta ; that his ''■Crederei 
piutosto " is converted into — " Ne viene al sicifro." 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 399 

otherwise written and pronounced : nor had a false delicacy 
proscribed a very innocent and decent word, till affectation 
made it otherwise. 

" Forsothe bifore the faith cam, we weren kepte undur the lawe shit 
togidir in to that faith that was to be shewid. And so the lawe was 
oure litel mastir in Crist." — Galathies, eh. ii. (v. 23, 24.) 

" These han power of shittyng heuen, that yt reyne not in tbe daies 
of her prophecie." — Apocalips, eh. xi. (v. 6.) 

" There Christ is in kingedome to close and to shit, 
And to open it to hem, and heuens blisse shewe." 

Vis. of F. Ploughman, pass. 1. fol. 2. p. 2. 
" Marchaunts meten with him and made him abide 
And SHITTE hym in her shoppes to shewen her ware." 

Ibid. pass. 3. fol. 11. p. 1. 
" For there is none so lytel thyng 
So hyd ne closed with SHYTTYNa 

That it ne is sene." — Rom. of tJie Bose, fob 127. p. 2. col. 1. 
" And the sothfast garner of the holy grayne, 
As sayth Guydo, was a mayde swete. 
In whome was shttte, sothely for to sayne. 
The sacred store." — Lydgate, Lyfe of our Lady, p. 128. 
" For of her wombe the cloyster virginall 
Was euer cliche bothe firste and laste 
Closed and shttte, as castell pryncipall, 
For the holy ghoste deuised it and caste, 
And at bothe tymes shytte as lyke faste 
In her chyldynge no more through grace y broke 
Than at her conceyuynge than it was unloke." — Ibid. p. 210. 
" Fader Joseph, ye knowe well that ye buryed the body of Jhesu, and, 
fader, ye knowe well that we shytte you in prison, and we coude not 
fynde you therin, and therfore tell us what befell there. Then Joseph 
answered and sayd. Whan ye dyde shytte me in the close pryson" &c. — 
Nychodemus Gospell, ch. 13. 

*' Than they lad them in to theyr synagoge, and whan they had 
shytte the dores surely they toke theyr lawes," &c. — Ibid. ch. 15. 
" Sh"XTTE myghtely your gates with yren barres." — Ibid. ch. 15. 
"All the gates and shyttymges with yren barres and boltes all to 
braste in his holy corny nge." — Ibid. ch. 16. 

" Whan man or woman sholde pray, they sholde go in to theyr 
chambre and shytte the dore to them. The dore that we sholde 
shytte ben our fyue wyttes outwarde, to flee dystraccion." 

Bines and Favper, fyrste Comra. cap. 54. 



400 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" She saye, that she hadde leuer to shytte herselfe all quyck in the 
graue, than to harme eny soule that God made to his lykenesse." 

JDiues and Pauper ^ 10th Comm. cap. 4. 
" The yates of this cyte shall nener be shytte." — Ibid. eh. 11, 
" Sometymes the mouth of the matrice is so large and ample that it 
cannot conueniently shytte itselfe together, nether contayne the feture 
or conception." — Byrth of Mankynde, fol. 41. p. 1. 

"And holding out her fyngers, shytting together her hand," &c. 

Ibid. fol. 51. p. 1. 
" The woman sealeth her matrice verye fastelye enclosed and shytte, 
in so muche " &c. — Ibid. fol. 84. p. 2. 

" The foure sayde bishoppes denounced kynge Ihon with his realme 
of Englande accursed, and shitte faste the doores of the churches." 

Fabian, p. 28. 

" That boke whiche as sainct lohan saith in the Apocalyps is so shyt 

with vii elapses, that it cannot be opened but by the lambe, that whan he 

shytteth, then can no man open it ; and whan he openeth it, than 

can no man shyt it." 

Sir T. Mores TForJces, A Dialogue, ^c. 1st boke, p. 111. 
" The temple of Christ is mans harte, and God is not included nor 
SHiT^ in any place." — Ibid. p. 122. 

[" Syr Thomas More being shit up so close in prison." — Letters of 
Sir TJiomas More to Ms Daughter, Eeb. 1, 1532. p. 142.] 

"Goddes determinacions be hydden frome us, and euery wyndowe 
shyt up, where we myghte pere into them." 

Gardenei's Declaration against loye, fol. 45. p. 2. 
" His disciples knew not how he entryd, the dores being shit." 

A Declaration of Christe. By lohan Hoper, cap. 8. 
[" Ne is there place for any gentle wit, 
Unlesse, to please, it selfe it can applie ; 
But shouldred is, or out of doors quite shit." 

Si^ensei", Colin Clouts come home againe.] 

I do not know that it is worth while ; but it can do no harm 
to notice^ that the expression of — getting shut of a thing — 
means — to get a thing thrown off or Cast from us." And 



^ [See the E-ev. E. Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia, ii. p. 297, v. 
Shet, and Shitten Saturday, the Saturday in Passion Week. — Ed.] 
^ [ " This outward sainted deputie. 

Whose setled visage, and deliberate word 

Nips youth i' th' head, and follies doth emmew 

As falcon doth the fowle, is yet a divell : 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 401 

that a Weaver's shuttle or shittle [Shut-del, Shit-del) means 
a small instrument shot, i. e. Thrown or Cast, 

" An honest weaver, and as good a workman 
As e'er shot shuttle." — S. and Fletcher^ The Coxcombe, p. 334. 

A sHUTTLE-cork or sHiTTLE-cork has the same meaning, i. e. 
A cork Thrown or Cast (backward and forward). 

Sheet, (whether a sheet for a bed, a sheet of water, a 
SHEET of lightning, a sheet anchor, &c.) is also the same 
participle fceat. 

What we now write sheet anchor was formerly written shot 
anchor. 

" Certaine praiers shoulde ther be sayd : and thys was against the 
stone the very shote anker." 

Sir T. Mores Workea^ A Dialogue ^c. 2d boke, p. 195. 

" Thei runne to the heresie of the Donatistes as to a shoote anker." 
Traictise of the pretensed Marriage of Priestes, eh. 2. 

But, besides the above different ways of writing and pro- 
nouncing this same participle, as with other verbs; we have, 
with this verb, another source of variation. The Anglo-Saxon 
f c was pronounced both as sh and as sk. The participle there- 
fore of j'citan, upon that account, assumes another apparently 
different form : and this different pronunciation (and conse- 
quently different writing) has given us scot, scout, scate, and 

SKIT.^ 

Scot and shot are mutually interchangeable. They are 
merely one and the same word, viz. the Anglo-Saxon fceat, the 
past participle of f citan ; the jx being differently pronounced. 
Scot free, scot and lot, Rome- scot, &c. are the same as shot 
free, shot and lot, Uome-SHOT, &c. 



His filth within being cast, he would appeare 
A pond, as deepe as hell." 

Measure for Measure, 1st folio, act 3. sc. 1. p. 71. 
See Malone's edition, volume 2 ; and Johnson's foolish note. " To 
cast a pond is to empty it of mud." 

Aristophanes in the first scene of his comedy, intitled * Peace' speaks 
of Atos Karai^aTov. The epithet has exceedingly puzzled the commenta- 
tors. It means merely, Jupiter the shiter.] 
^ [See the Plutus of Aristophanes, act 3. sc. 2. 

2Karo-0ayos, merdi-vorus. 
See also 2/caroy, merda ; and ^kitolKol in Aristophanes.] 

2 D 



402 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

The Italians have (from us) this same word scotto, applied 
and used by them for the same purpose as by us. Dante uses 
it in his Purgatory : ^ and is censured for the use of it_, by those 
who, ignorant of its meaning, supposed it to be only a low, 
tavern expression ; and applicable only to a tavern reckoning. 
And from this Italian scotto, the French have their Escot, 
Ecot, employed by them for the same purpose. 

This word has extremely puzzled both the Italian and French 
etymologists. Its use and application they well knew: they 
could not but know : it was — '^L' argent jette^ sur la table de 
rhote, pour prix du repas qu'on a pris chez lui.^^ — But its ety- 
mology, or the real signification of the word, taken by itself, 
(which alone could afford the reason why the word was so used 
and applied,) intirely escaped them. Some considered that, 
in a tavern, people usually pay for what they have eaten : these 
therefore imagined that scotto might come from Excoctus of 
Coquere ; and that it was used for the payment of Excoctus 
cibus. ExcoctOj Escotto, Scotto. 

Others considered that men did not always eat in a tavern -, 
and that their payment, though only for wine, was still called 
scotto. These therefore fixed upon a common circumstance, 
viz. that, whether eating or drinking, men were equally forced 
or compelled to pay the reckoning : they therefore sought for 
the etymology in Cogere and Excogere. Coacto, Excoacto, 
Excocto, Excotto, Scotto. 

Indeed, if the derivation must necessarily have been found 
in the Latin, I do not know where else they could better have 
gone for it. But it is a great mistake, into which both the 
Italian and Latin etymologists have fallen, to suppose that all 
the Italian must be found in the Latin, and all the Latin in the 
Greek : for the fact is otherwise. The bulk and foundation 
of the Latin language is Greek ; but great part of the Latin is 
the language of our Northern ancestors, grafted upon the Greek. 



^ [" L'alto fato di Dio sarebbe rotto 

Se Lete si passasse, e tal vivanda 

Fosse gustata senza alcuno scotto 

Di pentimento, cbe lagrime spanda." 

II Purgatorio di Dante, cant. 30.] 
* [Ital. Gittare. French Jetter.l 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 403 

9 

And to our Northern language the etymologist must go, 
for that part of the Latin which the Greek will not furnish : 
and there, without any twisting or turning, or ridiculous forcing 
and torturing of words^ he will easily and clearly find it. We 
want therefore the testimony of no historians to conclude that 
the founders of the Roman state and of the Latin tongue came 
not from Asia, but from the North of Europe. For the lan- 
guage cannot lye. And from the language of every nation we 
may with certainty collect its origin. In the same manner ; 
even though no history of the fact had remained ; and though 
another Virgil and another Dionysius had again, in verse and 
prose, brought another ^neas from another Troy to settle 
modern Italy, after the destruction of the Roman government ; 
yet, in spite of such false history, or silence of history, we 
should be able, from the modern language of the country 
(which cannot possibly lye) to conclude with certainty that our 
Northern ancestors had again made another successful irruption 
into Italy, and again grafted their own language upon the 
Latin, as before upon the Greek. For all the Italian, which 
cannot be easily shewn to be Latin, can be easily shewn to be 
our Northern language. 

It would therefore, I believe, have been in some degree useful 
to the learned world; if the present system of this country 
had not, by a* [shameful persecution and a most unconsti- 
tutional, illegal, and cruel sentence, destroyed] that virtuous 
and harmless good man, Mr. Gilbert Wakefield. For he had, 
shortly before his death, agreed with me to undertake, in con- 
junction, a division and separation of the Latin tongue into two 
parts : placing together in one division all that could be clearly 
shown to be Greek ; and in the other division, all that could 
be clearly shown to be of Northern extraction. And I cannot 
forbear mentioning to you this circumstance; not to revive 
your grief for the loss of a valuable man who deserved [reward 
rather than punishment;] but because, he being dead and I 



^ [The words in brackets were omitted in tlie first edition. Mr. Wake- 
field left Dorchester gaol on the 29th of May 1801, having been im- 
prisoned there for two years ; and died on the 9th of September in the 
same yeai". — En.] 

2 D 2 



404 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

speedily to follow him, you may perhaps excite and encourage 
some other persons more capable to execute a plan, which would 
be so useful to your favourite etymological amusement. I say, 
you must encourage them : for there appears no encouragement 
in this country at present [but for the invention of new taxes 
and new penalties, for spies and informers ;] which swarm 
amongst us as numerously as our volunteers [in this our present 
state of siege ;] with this advantage, that none of the former, 
[neither taxes, nor penalties, nor spies,] are ever rejected on 
account of their principles. 

Good God! This country [in a state of siege] ! What 

cannot an [obstinate system of despotism and corruption] 
atchieve ! America, [Ireland,] Corsica, Hanover, with all our 
antient dependents, friends and allies, [All lost. All gone !] 
And in how short a time ! And the inhabitants of this little 
[persecuted and plundered] island (the only remaining spot) 
[now in a state of siege !] Besieged collectively by France 
from without : [and each individual at home, more disgracefully 
and daily besieged] in his house by swarms of [tax collectors, 
assessors, and supervisors, armed with degrading lists, to be 
signed under precipitated and ensnaring penalties ;] whilst his 
growing rents, like the goods of an insolvent trader, are [pre- 
maturely attached] in the hands of his [harassed tenants,] who 
now suddenly find that they too have a new and additional 
rent, beyond their agreement^ to pay to a new and unforeseen 
landlord. 

F, — Turn your thoughts from this subject. Get out of the 
way of this vast rolling mass, which might easily have been 
stopped at the verge of the precipice; but must now roll to 
the bottom. Why should it crush you un profitably in its 
course? [The die is certainly cast, although we had not a 
foreign enemy in the world.] 

H. — " Ever right, Menenius. Ever, Ever." 

A SCOUT has been supposed, in some manner (but it is not 
attempted to be shewn in what manner) to belong to the verb 
Ecouter, Escouter, auscultare, To Listen: and this, merely 
because of a resemblance in the sound and letters of that verb. 
But is listening the usual business of a scout ? Are his ears 
all, and his eyes nothing ? Is he no good scout who returns 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 405 

with intelligence of what he has seen ^ of the enemy^ unless he 
has likewise overheard their deliberations? Is an Ow^-scout 
at Cricket sent to a distance^ that he may the better listen to 
what is passing? A scout means (subaud. some one, any 
one) SENT out. Say before an army_, to collect intelligence by 
any means : but, I suppose, by his eyes rather than by his 
ears ; and to give notice of the neighbourhood or position &c. 
of an enemy. Sent out, (which I have here employed, be- 
cause it is the word most used in modern discourse) is equiva- 
lent to Thrown or Cast, The Anglo-Saxon 8enban was used 
indifferently for 8citan : and send, in Old English, for 
Thrown or Cast. In the ninth chapter of St. Mark, verse 22, 
our modern translation says — '^ Oft times it hath Cast him into 
the fire and into the waters." Which our Old English trans- 
lation renders — " Ofte he hath sente him bothe in to fier and 
in to watir." And the Anglo-Saxon has it — " J>e hyne jelom- 
lice on pyp anb on psetep j-enbe." But the plainest instance I 
can recollect of the indifferent use of send and Cast or Thrown, 
is in the 12th chapter of Mark. — ^' And Ihesu sittinge ayens 
the tresorie bihelde hou the cumpany Castide money into 
the tresorie ; and many riche men Castiden manye thingis. 
Sotheli whanne a pore widewe hadde come, she sente twey 
mynutis, that is, a ferthing. And he clepinge togidre hise 
disciplis, seide to hem ; treuly I seie to you, for this pore 
widewe sente more than aUe men that senten in to the 
tresorie : for alle senten of that thing that was plenteuose to 
hem : sotheli this sente of hii* pouert, alle thingis that she 
hadde, al hir lyflode." 

^*^And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how 
the people cast money into the treasury ; and many that were 

^ [" Cal'uja^ in Koman antiquity, was the proper soldier's shoe, made 
in the sandal fashion, without upper leather to cover the superior part of 
the foot, tho' otherwise reaching to the middle of the leg, and fastened 
with thongs. The sole of the caliga was of wood, like the sabot of the 
Trench peasants, and its bottom stuck full of nails; which clavi are 
supposed to have been very long in the shoes 0/ the scouts and 
sentinels; whence these were called by way of distinction caligce 
speculatoria ; as if by mounting the wearer to a higher pitch, they gave 
a greater advantage to the sight." 

Encyclopedia Britanjiica^ vol. 4. p. 42,] 



406 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

rich CAST in mucli. And there came a certain poor widow_, and 
she THREW in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called 
■unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto 
you, that this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they 
which have cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of 
their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she 
had, even all her living.^^ 

As a writ, the past participle of To Write, means (subaud. 
something) Written ; ^ so a skit, the past participle of j-cifcan, 
means (subaud. something) Cast or Thrown. The word is now 
used for some jeer or jibe or covered imputation Thrown or Cast 
upon any one. The same thing in jesting conversation is also 
called a Fling. ^ But, as the practice itself has long been ba- 
nished from all liberal society, so the word is not easily to be 
found in liberal writings : and I really cannot recollect an in- 
stance of its use. But the adjective skittish, applied to a horse 
or jade of any kind, is common enough.^ 

The Dutch Scheet, peditus, is the same participle, and means 
merely (subaud. Wind) Cast out. 

Our English word Sketch, the Dutch Schets, the Italian 

^ ["With flying speede, and seeming great pretence, 
Came running in, mucli like a man dismayd, 
A messenger with letters, vvliicli bis message sayd," 
" Then to his handes that writt he did betake. 
Which he disclosing, read thus, as the paper spake." 

Faerie Queetie, book 1. cant. 12. st. 24, 25. 
" O cursed Eld, the canker-worme of writs \ 
How may these rimes, so rude as doth appeare, 
Hope to endure, sith workes of heavenly wits 
Are quite devourd?" Ibid, book 4. cant. 2. st. 33. 

" Ne may this homely verse, of many meanest, 
Hope to escape his venemous despite, 
More than my former writs, all were they cleanest 
From blamefull blot." Ibid, book 6. cant. 12. st. 41.] 

^ [" Plantagenet I see must hold his tongue. 

Least it be said, Speake Sirha when you should : 
Must your bold verdict enter talke with lords ? 
Else would I have a fling at Winchester." 

1st Part of Henry VI. p. 106.] 
' [" For such as I am, all true louers are, 

Unstaid and skittish in all motions else, 
Saue in the constant image of the creature 
That is belou'd." Twelfe Night; y^. 2G2. col. I.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 407 

Schizzo, and (though further removed) the French Esquisse, are 
all the same participle. And, besides the application still com- 
mon to all those languages, viz. " spezie di disegno non termi- 
nato/' the Italians likewise apply Schizzo very properly to — 
" Quella macchia di fango, d'acqua, o d^ altro liquore che viene 
dallo Schizzare : '^ any spot of dirt, or water, or other liquor 
spirted out upon us. 

The Latin Sagitta (pronounce Saghitta) is likewise this same 
participle SKIT, with the Latin terminating article A: and it 
means (subaud. something) Cast, Thrown, i. e. ^hot. Skit, 
Skita, Sakita, Sagita : (The earlier Komans never doubled 
their letters.) And Sagitta comes not (as Isidorus, C. Scaliger, 
Caninius, Nunnesius and Vossius dreamed) from sagaci ictu, or 
crar/^a, or aKoSos; or aayrj.^ 

[Shoe, in Anglo-Saxon 8coe, and 8coh, and tre-pcy^ 
means sub-position. It is the past participle of 8cyan, Le- 
j-cyan. To place under. S. Johnson, with his usual good luck, 
calls it — "the Cover of the foot.'' It means merely — Under- 
placed. See page 346. — "ealbe ^epcy." De-j-cob, Shod, 
calceatus.] 

Sop 

— are the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon and 
English verb 8ipan, To Sip, sorbere, macerare. 




^ ^ ^ -are the past participle of Ernyccan, To Knit, 



■^ ,^ \ nectere, alligare, attacker. 



" To by a bell of brasse or of bryght syluer 
And KNYT it on bys coller." 

Vision of P. Ploughinan, fol. 3. p. 2. 

" I would he had continued to his country 
As he began, and not unknitte himselfe 
The noble knot he made." Coriolanus, p. 20. 

^ " Sagittam, a sagaci ictu, hoc est, veloci ictu, ita appellari scribit 
Isidorus. Caesar Scaliger putat a cray/xa, eliso m, fieri saga; unde 
Sagitta. Angelus Caninius et Petrus Nunnesius aiunt venire ab ob- 
liquo aKibos, prsemisso s. Sane vel hoc verum est ; vel est Sagitta a 
2ayT]. Ut omnino a-ayr^s nomine contineantur Omnia armorum general 
— Vossius. 



408 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART IT. 

" He have this knot knit up tomorrow morning." 

Romeo and Juliet , p. 71. 
" So often shall the knot of us be call'd 
The men that gaue their country Liberty." 

Julius CasaTj p. 119. 
[ " The knot was knit by faith, and must onely be unknit of death." 
— Galathea {by Lily), act 4. sc. 2. 

" His owne two hands the holy knotts did knitt." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 13. st. 37. 
" Then thinke not long in taking litle paine 
To knit the knot that ever shall remaine." — Spenser ^ sonnet 6.] 

Knight — Enyc, Un attache. 

" And KNITTE, upon conclusion. 
His argument in suche a forme 
Whiche maie the pleyne trouth enforme." 

Gower, lib. 7. fol. 149. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Ye knowe eke howe it is your owne knight." 

Troylus, boke 3. fol. 177. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Yf it were lefull to syngell man and syngell woman to medle togydi-e 
and gendre, God hadde made matrymonye in vayne, and ther wolde no 
man knitte hym undepartably to ony woman." • 

Dines and Pauper, 6th Comm. cap. 3. 
" In all places I shall bee my lady your daughters seruant and knight 
in right and in wrong." 

Historie of Prince Arthur, 3d part, chap. 12. 
" O, find him, giue this ring to my true knight." 

Momeo and Juliet, p. 66. 
Net — is (subaud. something) Knitted. 

'* Thei ben to gether knet." — Gower, lib. 7. fol. 143. p. 1. col. 1. 
" The goodlyhede or beaute which that kynde 
In any other lady had ysette 
Cannot the mountenance of a gnat unbynde 
About his hert, of al Creseydes nette 
He was so narowe ymashed and yknette." 

Troylus, boke 3. fol. 181. p. 2. tol. 2. 
Slop •^ 

Slope V- — are the past participle of Slipan^ To Slip. 
Slip ) 

Slit ") — Fissura pedis cervini, is the past participle of 
Slot J Slitan, findere, To Slit. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 409 

" Here 's Little John hath harboured you a Deer, 

I see by his tackling. And a hart of ten, 

I trow he be, Madam, or blame your men : 

For by his slot, his entries, and his port. 

His frayings, fewmets, he doth promise sport 

And standing 'fore the dogs." Sad Shepherd, act 1. sc. 1. 

" Where harbor'd is the hart ; there often from his feed 

The dogs of him do find ; or thorough skilful heed. 

The huntsman by his slot, or breaking earth, perceives 

Where he had gone to lodge." Foly-olhion, song 13. 

Whore — is the past participle of t>ypan, To Hire. The word 
means simply (subaud. some one^ any one) Hired. It was 
formerly written without the w. How_, or when_, or by whom, 
the w was first absurdly prefixed, I know not. 

*' Treuli I sey to you, for pupplicans and hooeis shulen go bifore you 
in to the rewme of God. For John came to you in the wey of rightful- 
nesse, and ye bileuyde not to hym ; but pupplicans and hooris bileuiden 
to him." — Mattheu, ch. 21. 

" This thi sone whiche deuouride his substaunce with hooris." 

ImJc. ch. 15. 
" Takynge membris of Crist, shal I make membris of an ho ore ? " 

1 Corinthies, ch. 6. 
" Bi feith Kaib hoor perishide not." — Hehrewes, ch. 11. 
" Also forsothe and Eaib hoore, wher she was not iustified of 
werkis." — James, ch. 2. 

" I shal sliewe to thee the dampnacion of the great hore." 

Apocalips, ch. 16. 
" The watris that thou hast seyn where the hore sittith, ben pupphs, 
folkis and tungis or langagis. These shulen hate the fornycarie or 
hoore." — Apocalips, ch. 17. 

"Shal I make the membres of Christ, partes of the hores bodye?" 
Detection of the Deuih Sophistrie, fol. 96. p. 2. 

In confirmation of this explanation of the word (though it 
needs none, for it is in the regular and usual course of the whole 
language,) we have the practice of other languages : which, on 
the same score, give the same denomination to the same thing. 
Thus, as Vossius has well observed, Meretrix in Latin is so 
denominated a Merendo ; and Ilopvo^, Hopvr), in Greek, a 
Uepvao) (quod a Ylepao)) vendo. 

F. — Am I then to understand that all the other words of re- 



410 OF ABSTRACTION. [PAKT II. 

proach (so numerous and dissimilar) which are cast upon un- 
chaste women, have a similar etymology ? And that all those 
denominations [Harlot, P7^ostitute, Concubine, Wench, Trull, 
Punk, Drab, Strumpet) have also a reference to Sale and 
Hire ? 

-ff.— Not so. In one respect they have all a resemblance; 
inasmuch as they are all past participles ; but they do ^ot all 
relate to the circumstance of Sale or Hire, as whore and 
HARLOT do. 

Harlot — I believe with Dr. Th. Hickes, is merely Horelet, 
the diminutive of hore. The word was formerly applied (and 
commonly) to a very different sort of Hireling, for that is all 
which it means, to Males as well as Females. In Troylus and 
Cressida, Thersites tells Patroclus, 

" Thou art thought to be Achilles' male varlot. 
P. Male VARLOT, you rogue, What's that ? 
Th. Why his masculine whore." 

VARLET")The antient varlet^ and the modern valet 

Valet J for Hireling, I believe to be the same word as 
harlot; the aspirate only changed to v, and the r, by 
effeminate and slovenly speech, suppressed in the latter: as 
Lord, by affectation, is now frequently pronounced Lod or 
Lud. 

F. — You do not surely produce to me these words of Thersites, 
to shew that harlot was applied to males as well as to females : 
for they contain an infamous charge against Patroclus, and in- 
tended to give him a female appellation and office. 

H. — Agreed. But they shew that varlot and whore were 
synonymous terms. For the common application of harlot to 
men, merely as persons receiving vv^ages or hire, I must produce 
other instances. 

" He was a gentel harlot and a kynde, 
A better felowe shulde a man nat fynde." 

Chaucer, Prologues. The Sompnoiir, 

^ [Mr. Todd, in a note to Spenser's Faerie Queene, book 1, canto 8, 
stanza 13, tells us, that — "the word varlet, in old French, signifies a 
Youth.'' But Mr. Todd knew as little as heart can wish, concerning the 
signification of any words.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 411 

" Ye : false harlot (quod <he Miller) haste. 
A false traytour, false clerke (quod he)." 

Reues Tale, fol. 17. p. 1. col. 2. 
" A sturdy harlot went hem ay behynde, 
That was her hostes man, and bare a sacke." 

Sompners Tale, fol. 42. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Suche HARLOTTES shul men disclaunder." 

Flowmans Tale, fol. 94. p. 2. col. 2. 

" False Semblant (quod Loue) in thys wyse 
I take the here to my seruyce, &c. 
My kyng of harlotes shalt thou be." 

Rom. of the Rose, fol. 149. p. 1. col. 1. 
" The bissy kuapis and verlotis of his stabil 

About thaym stude." Douglas, booke 12. p. 409. 

" This day (great duke) she shut the doores upon me, 
While she with harlots feasted in my house." 

Comedy of Ihi'ors, p. 98. 
" The HARLOT-king is quite beyond mine arme." 

Winters Tale, p. 284. 
V. " Let not your too much wealth, Sir, make you furious. 
Corh. Away, thou varlet. 
V. Why, Sir ? 
Coi'b. Dost thou mock me ? 

V. You mock the world, Sir. Did you not change wills ? 
Corb. Out, HARLOT." Volpone, The Fox, act 2. sc. 6. 

" It is written in Solinus Be mirahilibus mundi, that in the Island of 
Sardinia there is a well ; whereof if a true man doe drinke, his eie sight 
straight waie waxeth cleere ; but if a false harlot doe but sup of it, hee 
waxeth starke blinde out of hande, although hee did see neuer so well 
before." — Wilson upon Usurie, fol. 186. 

Prostitute ■) ^^^^ ^^ explanation. 
Concubine J 

Wench — is the past participle of pmcian, To Wink; i.e. 
One that is Winked at ; and, by implication, who may be had 
by a nod or a Wink. Observe, that great numbers of words in 
English are written and pronounced indifferently with en or k. 
As Speak and Speech^ Break and Breach, Seek and Seech, Dike 
and Ditch, Drink and Drench, Poke and Pouch, Stink and 
Stench, Thack and Thatch, Stark and Starch, Wake and Watch, 
Kirk and Church, &c. 

[" K. Yet they doc wjnke and yceld, as louc is bhnd and enforces. 



413 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART 11. 

B. They are then excus'd, my lord, A^hen they see not what they doe. 
K. Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent winking. 
B. I will wiNKE on her to consent, my lord, if you will teach her to 
know my meaning." — Henry fift, p. 94. 

" If some allui'ing girl, in gliding by. 
Shall tip the wink, with a lascivious eye,^ 
And thou, with a consenting glance, reply." 

JDryden's translation of the 4ith Sat. of Persius. 
" I pray God that neuer dawe that day 
That I ne sterue, as foule as woman may, 
Yf euer I do to my kynne that shame 
Or els that I empayre so my name 
That I be false ; and if I do that lacke, ' 

Do stripe me, and put me in a sacke 
And in the next ryuer do me drenche ; 
I am a gentyl woman, and no wenche." 

Marchauntes Tale, fol. 33. p. 1. col. 1. 
" But for the gentyl is in estate aboue 
She shal be called his lady and his loue, 
And for that tother is a poore woman 
She shal be called his wenche, or his lemman." 

Manciples Tale, fol. 92. p. 1. col. 2. 
" But to weake wench did yield his martiall might : 
So easie was to quench his flamed minde 
With one sweete drop of sensuall delight." 

Faerie Queene, book 2. cant. 6. st. 8.] 

Trull. 

" I scar'd the dolphin and his trull." 

1st Fart Henry VI. p. 102. 
" Only th' adulterous Anthony, most large 

In his abhominations turnes you oflP, 

And giues his potent regiment to a trull." 

Anthony and Cleopatra, p. 354. 
" Amyddis Itale, under the hillis law, 

Thare standis ane famous stede wele beknaw, 

That for his brute is namyt in mony land, 

The vale Amsanctus hate, on ather hand 



[ " Wanton looks 

And privy Becks, savouring incontinence." 

Heytoood's Rape of Lucrece (1630.) 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 413 

Quham the sydis of ane thik wod of tre 
Closis all derne with skuggy bewis hie': 
Ane routand burn amydwart therof rynnis, 
Kumland and soundand on the craggy quhynnis : 
And eik forgane the brokin brow of the mont 
Ane horribill caue with brade and large front 
Thare may be sene ane throll, or aynding stede 
Of terribill Pluto fader of hel and dede, 
Ane rift or swelth so grislie for to se, 
To Acheron renin doun that heUis sye, 
Gapand with his pestiferus goule full wyde." 

Douglas, boke 7. p. 227. 
" Est locus, Italias in medio sub montibus altis, 
Nobilis, et fama multis memoratus in oris, 
Amsancti vaUes : densis hunc frondibus atrum 
Urget utrinque latus nemoris, medioque fragosus 
Dat sonitum saxis et torto vortice torrens : 
Hie specus hon'endum, et saevi spiracula Ditis 
Monstrantur : ruptoque ingens Acheronte vorago 
Pestiferas aperit ^auces." Virg. JEn. lib. 7. line 563. 

Trull^ applied to a woman, means perforata. Dyjiel, Dypl ; 
the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb DyjiUan, perforare. 
And as Dyjilian or Diplian, by a very common transposition 
of R, is in English Thrill; so the regular past participle of 
Diplian, viz. ©yjil or Dupl, is become the English throll, 
Thrul, or trull.^ 

" All were they sore hurte, and namely one 
That with a spere was throuled his brest bone." 

Knyghtes Tale, fol. 9. p. 2. col. 2. 
" He coude hys comynge not forbeare, 
Thoughe he him thrylled with a speare." 

Bom. of the Bose, fol. 156. p. 2. col. 2. 
" So THYRLE D with the poynt of remembraunce 
The swerde of sorowe." 

Complaynt of Annelyda, fol. 272. p. 2. col. 1. 

^ [" Gia veggia, per mezzul perdere, o lulla. 
Com' io vidi un, cosi non si pertugia, 
Rotto dal mento insin dove si trulla." 

Dante, V Inferno, cant. 28. 
"Trullo (says Menage) Peto, Coreggia. Trullare, Lat. pedere, 
sonitum ventris emittere. Porse da Pedo, Peditus, Peditulus, Tulus, 
Tullus, TruUus, trullo " ! ! — Menage, Orig. Ital.'] 



414 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART 11. 

" Howe that Arcite, Annelyda so sore 
Hath THRILLED with the poynt of remembraunce." 

Complaynt of Annelyda, fol. 273. p. 1. col. 2. 
*' The speare, alas, that was so sharpe withal, 
So THRILLED my herte." 

Mary Magdaleyne, fol. 336. p. 1. col. 2. 
" But wel I wot the speare with euery nayle 

Thirled my soule." Ibid. fol. 336. p. 2. col. 1. 

*' The knight his thrillant speare again assayd." 

Faerie Qiieene, book 1. cant. 11. st. 20. 
" Eor she was hable with her wordes to kill, 
And rayse againe to life the hart that she did thrill." 

Ibid. cant. 10. st. 19. 
" How ill-beseeming is it in thy sex 
To triumph like an Amazonian trull." 

'6rd Part of Henry VL p. 151. col. 2. 
*' Tho' yet you no illustrious act have done. 
To make the world distinguish Julia's son 
From the vile offspring of a trull, who sits 
By the town-wall." 

Dry dens Juvenal^ by G. Stepney^ sat. 8. 

Punk. 

*' She may be a puncke : for many of them are neither maid, widow, 
nor wife." — Measure for Measure, p. 8]. 

" Squiring punck and Puncklings up and down the city." 

B. and Fletcher, Martial Maid. 

Punk is the regular past participle of Pynjan, pungere : and 
it means (subaud. a female) Pung or Punc, i. e. Puncta. 

" Lo, he cometh with cloudis, and ech ige shal see him, and thei 
PUNGIDEN or prickiden hym." — Apocalips, ch. 1. 

" Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and 
they also which Pierced hiin. ''— Hevelatiofis, ch. 1. v. 7. 

Drab — is the past participle of cVK^I^A^; cjicere, ex- 
pell ere. 

** They say he keepes a Troyan drab, and uses the traitour Chalcas 
his tent." — Troylus and Cressida. 

Thersites here gives Cressida the appellation of drab, with 
peculiar propriety : for, according to his slanderous speech, 
who never omitted a circumstance of reproach, she was so in 
more senses than one. She was Djiabbe, as faces (for so our 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 415 

ancestors applied this participle) : and she was Dpab and 
Troyan Djiab, as being expelled and an Out-cast from 
Troy. 

Strumpet — i. e. Stronpot ; ^ a compound of two Dutch parti- 
ciples. Which, being Dutch, let Cassander and his associate 
explain. 

F. — Speaking of Varlets, you mentioned the word Lord. 
That word is not yet become quite an opprobrious term, what- 
ever it may be hereafter ; which will depend intirely upon the 
conduct of those who may bear that title, and the means by 
which it may usually be obtained. But what does the word 
mean ? For I can never believe, with Skinner, that it proceeds 
from — "J^laj:, panis, et Ford (pro Afford) suppeditare: quia 
scilicet multis panem largitur, i. e. multos alit."^ For the 
animal we have lately known by that name is intirely of a dif- 
ferent description. 

H. — You know, it was antiently written J^lapopb ; and our 
etymologists were misled by J^laj:, which, as they truly said, 
certainly means and is our modern loaf. But when they had 
told us that LOAF came from J^laj:, they thought their business 
with that word was compleated. And this is their usual prac- 
tice with other words. But I do not so understand etymology. 
I could as well be contented to stop at loaf in the English, as 
at J^lap in the Anglo-Saxon : for such a derivation affords no 
additional nor ultimate meaning. The question with me is still, 
why J^lap in the Anglo-Saxon? I want a meaning, as the 
cause of the appellation; and not merely a similar word in 
another language. 

Had they considered that we use the different terms bread 
and DOUGH and loaf for the same material substance in dif- 
ferent states ; they would probably have sought for the etymo- 
logy or different meanings of those words, in the circumstances 
of the different states. And had they so sought, they probably 

* \_Stro7dpot, lasanum : Skinner. — Ed.] 

' " Lord, ab A.-S. jplapojib, postea Lovejib, Dominus : hoc a j^lajr, 
panis, et Ford pro Afford, sui)pe(iitare. Quia sc. dominus, i. e. nobilis 
multis panem largitur, i. e. multos alit." — Skinner. 

Junius and Verstegan concur with this derivation ; though Junius 
acknowledges a difficulty — " quoniam nusquara adhuc incideram in vo- 
cabulum A.-Saxonicum quod responderet Angl. Afford^ 



416 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

would have found : and the meaning of the word |>laj: would 
have saved them from the absurdity of their derivation of lord. 
Bread we have already explained : It is Brayed grain. 
After breaking or pounding the grain, the next state in the 
process towards loaf is dough. And 

Dough — is the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb 
Deapian, To moisten or To wet. Dough therefore or now 
means Wetted. 

You will not fail to observe en passant, that dew — (A.-S. 
Deap) though differently spelled and pronounced, is the same 
participle with the same meaning. 
" Ane hate fyry power, warme and dew, 
Heuinly begynnyng and original 
Bene in thay sedis quhilkis we saulis cal." 

Douglas, lib. 6. p. 191. 
*' Of Paradise the well in sothfastnes 
Toyson that floweth in to sondry royames 
The soyle to adewe with his swete streames." 

Lyfe of oure Lady, p. 165. 
" Wherefore his mother of very tender herte 
Out Braste on teres and might herselfe nat Stere, 
That all bydewed were her eyen clere." — Ibid. p. 167. 
" And let my breste, benigne lorde, be dewed 

Downe with somme drope from thy mageste." — Ibid. p. 182. 
" With teares augmenting the fresh mornings deaw." 

Romeo and Juliet , p. 54. 
" Her costly bosom strew'd with precious orient pearl. 
Bred in her shining shells, which to the deaw doth yawn, 
Which DEAW they sucking in, conceive that lusty spawn." 

Foly-oWion, song 30. 
[" The drouping night thus creepeth on them fast : 
And the sad humor loading their e^Q-liddes, 
As messenger of Morpheus, on them cast 
Sweet slombring deaw, the which to sleep them biddes." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. ctmt. 1. st. 36. 

" There Tethys his wet bed 

Doth ever wash, and Cynthia still doth steepe 
In silver deaw his ever-drouping hed." — Ibid. st. 39. 
" Now when the rosy-fingred morning faire, 
Weary of aged Tithones saffron bed, 
Had spread her purple robe through deawy aire." 

Ibid. cant. 2. st. 7. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 417 

"Eroia that first tree forth flow'd, as from a well, 
A trickling streame of balme, most soveraine 
And dainty deare, which on the ground still fell, 
And overflowed all the fertile plaine, 
As it had deawed bene with timely raine." 

Faerie QueenCj cant. 11. st. 48. 

" The ioyous day gan early to appeare ; 

And fayre Aurora from the deawy bed 

Of aged Tithone gan herselfe to reare." 

Ibid, book 1. cant. 11. st. 51. 
*' As fresh as flowres in medow greene doe grow. 

When morning deaw upon their leaves doth light." 

Ibid, cant. 12. st. 6. 
" She alway smyld, and in her hand did hold 

An holy-water-sprinckle, dipt in deowe." 

Ibid, book 3. cant. 12. st. 13. 
" And all the day it standeth full of deow, 

Which is the teares that from her eyes did flow." — Spenser, 
" Like as a tender rose in open plaine. 

That with untimely drought nigh withered was, 

And hung the head, soone as few drops of raine 

Thereon distiU and deaw her daintie face. 

Gins to look up." — Faerie Queene, book 5. cant. 12. st. 13. 
" Now sucking of the sap of herbe most meet, 

Or of the deaw, which yet on them does lie." 

Spenser^ s Miiiopotmos, st. 23. 

•' Whose beautie shyneth as the morning cleare. 
With silver deaw upon the roses pearling." 

Spenser, Colin Clouts come home agaiu.'\ 

After tlie bread has been wetted (by which it becomes 
dough) then comes the Leaven (which in the Anglo-Saxon is 
termed J^sejze and J^apen) ; by which it becomes loaf. 

Loaf — (in Anglo-Saxon l^laj:^ a broad) is the past participle 
of J>lipian^ To raise; and means merely Raised. So in the 
Moeso- Gothic, h AAlKS is loaf ; which is the past participle 
of hAeiHQAN, To raise, or To lift up. 

In the old English translation we read — ^' He hauynge mynde 
of his mercy Took up Israel his child.^' In the modem ver- 
sion — " He hath holpen his servant Israel in remembrance of 
his mercy." Luke, chap. 1. ver. 54. But in the Gothic it is 
h ABlKlcVA ISKABAAj He hath raised or lifted up Israel. 

2 B 



418 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

When the etymologist had thus discovered that J^laj: 
meant Raised ; I think he must instantly have perceived that 
JMajzojib was a compound word of l^laj: {raised or exalted) 
and Ojib^ Ortus, source, origin, birth. 

Lord — therefore means High-born, or of an Exalted Origin. 
With this explanation of the word, you will perceive, that 
[kings] can no more make a lord, than they can make a 
Traitor. They may indeed place a Thief and a Traitor 
amongst lords; and destroy an innocent and meritorious 
man as a Traitor. But the theft and treachery of the one, 
and the innocence and merits of the other, together with the 
infamy of thus mal-assorting them, are far beyond the reach 
and power of any [kings] to do away. 

F. — If )^laj:opb, i. e. lord, does not mean (as I before 
suspected, and you have since satisfied me it does not mean) 
an Afforder of Bread ; neither can l^lajibij, i. e. lady, mean 
2i> Distributor or Server out of that Bread ;^ as (still misled by 



^ Verstegan, in his Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, edit. 1634, 
pag. 316, gives us the following account of Lord and Lady. 

" Lord. 

" I finde that our ancestors used for Lord the name of Laford, which 
(as it should seeme) for some aspiration in the pronouncing, they wrot 
JSlaforA and Hlafurd. Afterward it grew to be written Loverd : and 
by receiving like abridgment as other our ancient appellations have 
done, it is in one syllable become Lord. 

*' To deliver therefore the true etymology, the reader shall under- 
stand, that albeit wee have our name of Bread from Breod, as our 
ancestors were woont to call it, yet used they also, and that most com- 
monly, to call Bi-ead by the name of Illaf ; from whence we now only 
retaine the name of the forme or fashion wherein Bread is usually made, 
calling it a Loaf ; whereas Loaf comming of Lllaf or Laf is rightly 
also Bread it selfe, and was not of our ancestors taken for the forme 
only, as now we use it. 

" Now was it usuall in long foregoing ages, that such as were endued 
with great wealth and meanes above others, were chiefely renowned 
(especially in these Northerne regions) for their housekeeping and good 
hospitality ; that is, for being able and using to feed and sustaine many 
men ; and therefore were they particularly honoured with the name and 
title oi Illaford, whicli is as much to say as An Jforder of Laf , that is 
a Bread-giver : intending (as it seemeth) by Bread, the sustenance of 
man ; that being the substance of our food, the most agreeable to na- 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 419 

J^laj:) the same etymologists have supposed. Yet in J^lajibij 
there is no Opb_, nor any equivalent word to make her name 
signify High-born. 

H. — Nor does it so signify. J^lapbij signifies and is merely 
Lofty J i. e. Raised or Exalted : her birth being intirely out of 
the question ; the wife following the condition of the husband. 
But I wish you here to observe^ that the past participle of the 
verb J^lipian, besides loaf^ lord^ and lady, has furnished 
us with two other supposed substantives ; viz. lift (Lypt) 
and LOFT. 



ture, and that which in our daily prayers we especially desire at the 
hands of God. 

" And if we duly obserue it, wee shall finde that our nobility of Eng- 
land, which generally doe beare the name of Lord, have alwaies, and 
as it were of a successive custome (rightly according unto that honour- 
able name) maintayned and fed more people, to wit, of their servants, 
retayners, dependants, tenants, as also the poore, than the nobility of 
any country in the continent, which surely is a thing veiy honourable 
and laudable, and most well befitting noblemen and right noble minds. 

"Lady. 

" The name or title of Lady, our honourable appellation generally for 
all principall women, extendeth so farre, as that it not only mounteth 
up from the wife of the knight to the wife of the king, but remaineth to 
some women whose husbands are no knights, such as having bin Lord 
Majors are afterward only called Masters, as namely the Aldermen of 
York. 

" It was anciently written Hleafdian or Leafdian, from whence it 
came to be Lafdy, and lastly Lady. I have shewed here last before how 
Hlaf or Laf was sometime our name of Bread, as also the reason why 
our noble and principall men came to be honoured in the name of Laford, 
which now is Lord, and even the like in correspondence of reason must 
appeare in this name of Leafdian, the feminine of Laford : the first syl- 
lable whereof being anciently written Hleaf and not Hlaf, must not 
therefore alienate it from the like nature and sense ; for that only 
seemeth to have bin the feminine sound ; and we sea that of Leafdian 
we have not retained Leady but Lady. Well then both Hlaf and Hleaf 
we must here understand to signifie one thing, which is Bread : Bian 
is as much to say as Serve ; and so is Leafdian, a Bread-server, Whereby 
it appeareth that as the Laford did allow food and sustenance, so the 
Leafdian did see it served and disposed to the guests. And our ancient 
and yet continued custome that our Ladies and Gentlewomen doe use to 
carue and serve their guests at the table, which in other countries is 
altogether strange and unusuall, doth for proofe hereof well accord and 
corespond with this our ancient and honourable feminine appellation." 

2 E 2 



420 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

The former of these^ lift, is not used at present in England ; 
but, I am told, is still common in Scotland. 

" . With that the dow 

Heich in the lift full glaide he gan behald." 

Douglas, booke 5. p. 144. 

" Under the lift the niaist gentyl riuere." — Ibid, booke 8. p. 241. 

" Nane uthir wyse, than as sum tyme we se 

The schynand brokin thunderis lichtyng fle, 

Peirsand the wattry cloudis in the lift." — Ibid. p. 255. 
" For suddanlie thay se, or thay be war. 

The fyre flaucht beting from the lift on fer. 

Cum with the thunderis hidduous rumbling blast." — Ibid. p. 261. 

" And on that part quhar the lift was maist clere 
To wart the left hand maid ane thundering." — Ibid, booke 9. p. 300. 

" Wyth stormy tempestis and the northin blastis, 

Quhilk cloudis skatteris, and al the lift ouercastis." — Ibid. p. 302. 
" Ane huge clamour thay rasit and womenting, 

Eeting thare breistis, quhil all the lift did ryng." 

Ibid, booke 11. p. 360. 
" The sparrow chirmis in the wallis clyft 

Goldspink and lintquhite fordynnand the lyft." 

Ibid. Prol. to booke 12. p. 403. 
" Beliue ouer al the lift upsemyt rise 

The fell tempest.''— Ibid, booke 12. p. 418. 
" But lo ane sworl of fyre blesis up thraw 

Lemand towart the lift the flamb he saw." — Ibid. p. 435. 
" And as I lukit on the lift me by. 

All birnand rede gan waxin the euin sky." 

Ibid. Prol. to booke 13. p. 449. 

Lift — is the past participle J^lipob or lifed; obtained, in 
the usual manner, by adding the participial termination ob or 
ED to J>lip or Lif, Lifedy Lifd, Lift. Seeing the signification 
of the word lift, you will not wonder that it is perfectly equi- 
valent to HEAVEN ; and that in all the foregoing passages you 
may, if you please, substitute Heaven for Lift : One being the 
past participle of J^lij:ian, and the other of J^eapan. 

Loft (our common name for a Raised , Elevated or High 
room or chamber) — is likewise the past participle of J^lipan ; 
obtained in the same manner, by adding the participial termi- 
nation ED to the past tense J>lap or Lawf. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 421 

Lafed (a broad) Lafd, Laft — or loft. 

" A heart where dread was neuer so imprest. 
To hide the thought that might the truth aduaunce. 
In neither fortune loft, nor yet represt. 
To swell in wealth, or yeeld unto mischaunce." 

Songes and Soviets, By the Earl of Surrey , fol. 16. p. 2. 

*' Absence, my friende, workes wonders oft. 
Now brings full low, that lay full loft." — lUd. fol. 87. p. 1. 

Being thus in possession of the supposed substantive loft, 
the language proceeded in its usual way of forming an adjective 
by adding 15 to it ; which our modern language uniformly, in aU 
cases, changes to y. Hence the Adjective lofty. 

Lofty "^ are the same word, tbe same participle, the same 
and > adjective; and mean merely Raised, Elevated , 

Lady J Exalted, 

F. — I cannot take this leap with you at once from lofty to 
lady : They are too distant for me. I must have some station 
or some steps between, or I shall never reach it. I do not boggle 
at the difference between o and a, or, as it was pronounced, aw. 
That change is perpetually made. But the ft in the one, in- 
stead of D in the other, I cannot so easily get over. Besides, 
we use the one as a substantive, and the other as an adjective. 

H. — It is the F alone which, being retained in the one and 
suppressed in the other, causes all your difficulty, and aU the 
difference between the words. 

l^laf, J>laj:ob, J)laj:b, J^lajzb-ij 
omitting the incipient h, is in our modern character, 

Laf, Lafed, Lafd, Lafd-y. 

If the F is retained in the word, the immediately subsequent 
D is, as usual, changed to t : and the word will be Lafty (a broad) 

or LOFTY. 

If the F is suppressed, no cause remains for changing the d, 
and the word wiU be lady. 

It is not necessary, I suppose, to say one word to explain 
why lady is used as a substantive. Their frequent recurrence 
causes the same to numberless other adjectives which are now 
considered as substantives. 

F. — It seems rather extraordinary to me, that you should 
derive from one common stock so many different words, which 



422 OP ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

in their common use and application do not, at first sight, ap- 
pear to have any the smallest relation to each other. That 
Lord and Lady however might have a common origin, and be 
derived from the same source, I could very well suppose. But 
how their meaning should be connected with the Lift, a Lofty 
and a Loaf I confess I had not imagined. I do see at present 
the common link which holds them together. But, though you 
did the same thing before with the verbs J^eapan and Scican, 
yet, I suppose, such coincidencies are rare. 

H. — No. It is the necessary condition of all languages. It 
is the lot of man, as of all other animals, to have few different 
ideas (and there is a good physical reason for it), though we 
have many words : and yet, even of them, by no means so many 
as we are supposed to have. I mean, of words with different 
significations. What you now notice would have happened 
often before, if I had not been careful to keep it out of sight, 
till you should be ripe for it. 

At first, if you remember, we were led to a discovery of these 
hidden participles only by the participial terminations ed, en, 
and T. But we have now proceeded a little further, and have 
discovered another set of participles which we obtain by a 
change of the characteristic letter of the verb. "We may now 
therefore look back to those participles we at first noticed ; and 
add to them those which are derived from the same common 
stock, and which I forbore at that time to mention. Thus 

Brown "^ as well as brand,^ are the past participle of the 
and >verb To Br en, or To Brin, The French and 

Brunt J Italians have in their languages this same parti- 
ciple ; written hj them Brun and Bruno. Brown means 
Burned J (subaud. colour). It is that colour which things have 
that have been Burned. 

[ " Come procede imianzi dall' ardore 
Per lo papiro suso un color bruno, 
Che non e nero ancora, e '1 bianco miiore." 

Z' Inferno di Dante, cant. 25.] 

" Newe grene chese of smalle claramynes comforteihe a hotte stomake, 
as Basis sayth, it repressethe his brounes and heate." 

Begiment of Helthe, By T. Baynel, (1541.) fol. 61. p. 1. 

"It BOURNETH oucr moche." — Ibid. fol. 62. p. 1. 

^ In BRANDY, (German Brand-wein) Brand is the same participle. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 423 

(Hence also the Italians have their Bronzo : from which the 
French and English have their Bronze.) 

Nor is this peculiar to our language alone ; nor to this colour 
only. All colours in all languages must have their denomina- 
tion from some common object, or from some circumstances 
which produce those colours. So Vossius well derives fuscus — 
" Trapa ro (fxoaKeLv, quod Hippocrati est Ustulare. Nam quae 
ustulantur Fusca reddunt.^' In the same manner, 

Yellow — (Ireaeljeb, Ire-selj) is the past participle of Ire- 
selan/ accendere. The Italian Giailo and the French (De- 
seljen) Gialne, Jaune, are the same participle. So the 
Latin words Flammeus and Flavus from ^XeycOj ^Xejfjua, 
Flamma. 

Green — is the past participle of Dpenian, virescere: as 
Viridis of virere, and Prasinus from Upaaov. 
White — is the past participle of OA^^QA^j spumare. 
Grey — of Depejnan, inficere, &c. 

Brunt — [Brun-ed, Brun^d, Brunt) i. e. Burnt, is the same 
participle as brown or Brun. In speaking of a battle. To bear 
the brunt of the day — is to bear the Heat, the Hot or Burnt 
part of it. 

[Skinner says — ^^ Brunt, To bear the brunt of the day : 
maximum prselii impetum sustinere. Procul dubio a Teut. et 
Belg. brunst, ardor, fervor, calor, sestus, i. e. The Heat of the 
day."] 

" Enceladus body with thunder lyis half bront." 

Douglas, booke 3. p. 87. 

" I report me unto the kynges maiestye that ded is, whiche at the fyrst 

BROUXT, as sone as he toke Godes cause in hand, that leopard and dragon 

of Kome, did not only solicitat thole forene worold against him, but &c." 

Beclaracion of Christe, By Johan Hoper, (1547.) 

" With what reason could ye thinke, that if ye bode the Jiote brunt 

of battaile, but ye must needs feeleihe smart? " 

The Hurt of Sedition, By Sir John Cheke. 

Log ^ as well as Law — are also the past participle of 

and V AArQA^j Lecjan, ponere. To Lay. Laj (a 

Load J broad, and retaining the sound of the j) log, from 

^ [Ale; YeUow; Yelk, Yolk; Gold.] 



434 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

the Anglo-Saxon, corresponds with post from the Latin. We 
say indifferently — '' To stand like a post/^ or " To stand like 
a log" in our way. Lag-ed or Lag'd (dismissing the sound 
of the 5) becomes Lad (a broad) or load. And you will not 
fail to observe, that, though Weight is subaud. and therefore 
implied in the word load ; yet Weight is not load, until cuivis 
Impositum, 



Sheer 

Sherd, Shred 

Shore and Score 

Short 

Shorn 

Shower 

Share and Scar 

Shard 

Shire 

Shirt and Skirt 



All these, so variously written and 
pronounced; and now so differently and 
distinctly applied; are yet merely the 
past participle of 8cipan, To Shear, To 
cut, To divide. To separate. And they 
were formerly used indifferently. 



Nor have we any occasion to travel for their etymology (I 
cannot say with Dr. Johnson, for he himself never advanced a 
single footstep towards any of them, but by his ignorant di- 
rection) to the Dutch, the Swedish, the Islandic, the French, 
or the Frisick. It is true that all these languages, as well as 
the German, the Danish, and even the Italian and the Spanish, 
share this participle in common with ourselves : and if that be 
Etymology, barely to find out a similar word in some other 
language, the business of the etymologist is perfectly idle and 
ridiculous. For they might all refer, each to the other, with- 
out any one of them ever arriving at a meaning. But the 
Italian, the French and the Spanish have this participle from 
our Northern ancestors : and in our own language the etymo- 
logy of all these words is to be found : and from a Northern 
language only can they be rationally explained. The Italian 
and French etymologists are therefore in some sort excusable 
for the trash they have written on the Northern words in their 
language : If I was not afraid of being condemned by my own 
sentence, I should add, an Englishman has no excuse. 

To exemplify and confirm what I have said, I will give you a 
few instances ; your own reading will furnish you with as many 
more as you please. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 435 

" Bot thare was na dynt mycht thare federis scher." 

Douglas, booke 3. p. 75. 
" And thay that with scharp cultir Telle or schere 

Of Eutuly the hilly knollis hie."— /6i^. booke 7. p. 237. 
*' Than the reuthful Eneas kest his spere, 
Quhilk throw Mezentius armour dyd all schere." 

Ibid, booke 10. p. 347. 
" And bad thay suld with ane scharp knyfe that tyde 
Schere down the wound and mak it large and wyde." 

Ibid, booke 12. p. 423. 
*' And with that word his scherand swerd als tyte 

Hynt out of sceith." — Ihid. booke 4. p. 120. 
" And with ful flude flowing fra toun to toun 
Throw fertil feildis schering thare and here." 

Ibid, booke 8. p. 241. 
" But with no craft of combes brode, 
Thei might hir hore lockes shode. 
And she ne wolde not be shore." 

Gower,VLh. 1. fol. 17. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Like as the Nazareans, as sone as euer they had vowed, thei shore of 
streight ways their heare." 

Br. Martin, Of Priestes unlaiiful Mariages, ch. 8. p. 171. 

" I am glad thy father 's dead. 

Thy match was mortal to him : and pure greefe 
Shore his old thred in twaine." — Othello, p. 337. 
" sisters three, come, come to mee. 
With hands as pale as milke, 
Lay them in gore, since you haue schore 

With sheeres his thred of silke." — Mids. Nights Breame, p. 161. 
[" Eftsoones her shallow ship away did slide. 
More swift than swallow sheres the liquid skye." 

Faerie Queene, book 2. cant. 6. st. 5. 
" With rugged beard, and hoarie shagged heare, 
The which he never wont to combe, or comely sheare." 

Ibid, book 4. cant. 5. st. 34. 
" Eor with his trenchant blade at the next blow 
Halfe of her shield he shared quite away." 

Ibid, book 5. cant. 5. st. 9. 
" So soone as fates their vitall thred have shorne." 

Spenser's Buhies of Time. 
" His snowy front, curled with golden heares. 
Like Phcebus face adornd with sunny raycs, 



426 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Divinely shone ; and two sharpe winged sheares, 
Decked with diverse plumes, like painted jayes, 
Were fixed at Ms backe to cut his ayery wayes." 

Faerie Queene^ book 2. cant. 8. st. 5.] 
*' On cais thare stude ane meikle schip that tyde, 
• Hir wail joned til ane schore reikis syde." 

Douglas, booke 10. p. 342. 
" And fra hir hie windois can espy 
With bent sail caryand furth the nauy, 

The coistis and the schore aU desolate." — Ibid, booke 4. p. 120. 
" Smate with sic fard, the airis in flendris lap, 
Hir forschyp hang, and sum dele schorit throw." 

Ibid, booke 5. p. 134. 
" With mantil rent and schorne men micht hir se." 

Ibid, booke 8. p. 269. 
" His berdles chekis or his chaftis round 
In sunder schorne has with ane greslie wound." 

Ibid, booke 9. p. 305. 
" Syne smate he Lycas, and him has al to lorne. 
That of his dede moderis wame furth was schorne." 

Ibid, booke 10. p. 326. 
" And lyke as sum tyme cloudis bristis attanis, 
The SCHOURE furth yettand of hoppand- halestanys." 

Douglas, booke 10. p. 348. 
" His feris has this pray ressanit raitJi, 
And to thare meat addressis it to graith, 
Hynt of the hydis, made the boukis bare, 
Eent furth the entrellis, sum into talyeis s chare." 

Ibid, booke 1. p. 19. 
" The god of loue, whiche al to schare 
Myn herte with his arowes kene." 

Rom. of tie Rose, fol. 128. p. 2. col. 2. 

" I had my feather shot shaer away." 

B. and Metclier, KnigM of the Burning Pestle. 
"And eke full ofte a littel skare 
Upon a banke, or men be ware, 
Let in the streme, whiche with gret peine 
If any man it shal restreine." — Gower, Prol. fol. 3. p. 2. col. 2. 
" I dare aduenture mee for to keepe her from an harder shoure than 
euer I kept her." — Hist, of Prince Arthur, 3d part, ch. 155. 

" Yet Lug, 'whose longer course doth grace the goodly sheere." 

Pohj'olbion, song 6. 



CH. IV.] OP ABSTRACTION. 427 

" Whicli manly Malvern sees from furthest of the sheer." 

Foly-olUon^ song 7. 

" Yet both of good account are reckned in the shiere." 

Ibid, song 7. 

Sherd and shred have been already examined^ (p. 330.) 
Sheer^ as we now use it^ means separated from every thing 
else. As when we say — ''^ sheer ignorance/' i. e. separated 
from any the smallest mixture of information ; or^ separated 
from any other motive. So in the instance from Beaumont and 
Fletcher (who write it shaer) it means, that the feather was so 
separated by the shot, as not to leave the smallest particle 
behind. 

Shore, as the sesL-shoj-e or shore of a river (which latter 
expression Dr. Johnson, without any reason, calls '^a licen- 
tious use '^ of the word), is the place where the continuity of 
the land is interrupted or separated by the sea or the river. 
Observe, that shore is not any determined spot, it is of no size, 
shape nor dimensions ; but relates merely to the separation of 
land from land. 

Shored, Shor'd, short (or, as Douglas has written it, 
schorit) cut off; is opposed to long, which means Extended : 
Long being also a past participle of Lenjian, To extend, or To 
stretch out. 

Shirt and Skirt (i. e. pcipeb) is the same participle, differ- 
ently pronounced, written, and applied. 

Shower (in Anglo-Saxon j-cyup and fcup) means merely 
broken, divided, separated: (subaud. clouds). Junius and 
Skinner had some notion of the meaning of this word ; Johnson 
none. 

Score, when used for the number Twenty, has been well 
and rationally accounted for, by supposing that our unlearned 
ancestors, to avoid the embarrassment of large numbers, when 
they had made twice ten notches, cut off the piece or Talley 
{Taglie) containing them ; and afterwards counted the scores 
or pieces cut off; and reckoned by the number of separated 
pieces, or by scores. 

Score, for account or reckoning, is well explained, and in 
the same manner; from the time when divisions, marks or 
notches, cut in pieces of stick or word, were used instead of 



428 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

those Arabian figures we now employ. This antient manner 
of reckoning is humourously noted by Shakespeare. 

" Thou hast most traiterously corrupted the youth of the realme, in 
erecting a Grammer Schoole ; and whereas before our forefathers had no 
other bookes but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to 
be used."— 26? Part Henry VI. p. 141. 

[" And on his brest a bloodie crosse he bore, 
The deare remembrance of his dying Lord, 
Upon his shield the like was also scor'd." 

Spenser's Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 1. st. 2.] 

Share, shire^, scar, one and the same past participle, 
mean separated, divided. Share, any separated part or por- 
tion. Shire, a separated part or portion of this realm. And 
though we now apply scar only to a cicatrix, or the remaining 
mark of a separation; it was formerly applied to any sepa- 
rated part.^ 

[ " Stay, Sir King, 

This man is better than the man he slew. 
As well descended as thyselfe, and hath 
More of thee merited, then a band of Clotens 
Had euer scarre for." — Cymbeline, p. 397. col. 2. 
" Tho him she brought abord, and her swift bote 
Forthwith directed to that further strand : 
Upon that shore he spyed Atin stand. 
There by his maister left, when late he far'd 
In Phsedrias flitt barck over that perlous shard." 

Jaerie Queene, book 2. cant. 6. st. 38.] 

In the instance I produced to you from Gower, he calls it — 
" a littel skare upon a banke that lets in the streame.^' So 
you will find in Ray's North-country words (p. 52.) that 
what we now call Pot -sherds, or Pot-shards, are likewise called 



^ [Skinner says, — " A scar, a Fr. G. Escare, Escarre, cicatrix, utr. 
detorto sensu, a Gr. Ecrxapa, Crusta post adustionem relicta. Medicis 
Escara, vel, ut Minsh. vult, a Belg. Schorre, Schoore, ruptura ; sed 
prius pra3fero : Escara enim cicatrici propter duritiem affinis est. Verum 
si Camdeno credendum sit, Scaji, A.-S. cautem signare, longe optimum 
esset ab isto 8caji deducere : nam instar cautis dura est. V. Camden. 
in agro Ebor. reddentem etymon portus Scarborough."] [So in York- 
shire and WestmoreLand there are Hardraw Scar, Thornton Scar, Knype 
Scar, &c. — Ed.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 429 

Pot-scARS or Po^-SHREDS.* You will find, too, that where we 
now use scar, was formerly used score, with the same meaning : 
as in Ray's Proverbs (p. 19.) — " Slander leaves a score behind 
it." — So the ^^ cliffe of a rocke '' (i. e. the cleaved part of it) as 
Ray informs us, is still called a " scarre." Douglas, we have 
seen, calls it — " ane schore reikis syde." 

*' And northward from her springs haps Scardale forth to find, 
Which Hke her mistress Peake, is naturally inclin'd 
To thrust forth ragged cleeves, with which she scattered lies. 
As busy nature here could not herself sujffice. 
Of this oft-alt'ring earth the sundry shapes to show, 
That from my entrance here doth 7'ouffh and rougher grow, 
Which of a lowly dale although the name it bear, 
You, by the rocks^ might think that it a mountain were, 
From which it takes the name of Scardale." 

Poly-olUon, song 26. 

" As first without herself at sea to make her strong, 
And fence her farthest point from that rough Neptune's rage. 
The isle of Walney lies ; whose longitude doth swage 
His fury, when his waves on Furnesse seems to war. 
Whose crooked back is arm'd with many a rugged scar. 
Against his boist'rous shocks.'* — Ihid. song 27. 

The SHARE-BONE is so called, because it is placed where the 
body is separated or divided. So Douglas, booke 3, p. 82, 
says, 

"Ane fair virginis body doune to hir schere." 

Plough -SHARE is a Plough-sheerer j contracted to avoid the 
repetition er, er. 

A pair of sheers, a pair of sheerers. 

" Quliais woll or fleis was neuer clepit with schere," 

Douglas, booke 12. p. 413. 

The Italian Scerre, Sciarrare, and Schiera ; and the French 
a V E' cart J and Dechirer, sufficiently speak the same North- 



^ [" They hew'd their helmes, and plates asunder brake, 
As they had potshares bene." 

Faerie Queene, book 6. cant. 1. st. 37.] 
[" The shard-home beetle ; " " sharded beetle ;" " They are his sha^'ds, 
and he theh beetle." — Shakesjpeare. Ed.] 



430 • OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

ern origin; and none other has been or can be found for 
them.^ 

Blunt — As blind has been shewn to be Blin-ed ; so blunt 
is Blon-ed, the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb Blmnan, 
To Blin, To stop. Blon is the regular Anglo-Saxon past tense; 
to which by adding ed^ we have Blon-ed, Blon^d, Blont or 
BLUNT: i. e. Stopped in its decreasing progress towards di. point 
or an edge, 

["Por God he often saw from heavens hight, 
All were his earthly eien both blunt and bad, 
And through great age had lost their kindly sight." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 10. st. 47.] 

Foe ! ") Upon a former occasion, you may remember, I 
FoH ! r" considered the adverb or interjection fie! as the 
Faugh ! ^ Imperative of the verb Fian, To Hate : and I have 
very lately shewn fiend, panb, to be the present participle 
of the same verb. Now that we have noticed the usual and 
regular change of the characteristic letter of the verbs, I suppose 
that you are at once aware that foe, j:a, is the past tense, and 
therefore past participle, of the same verb pian; and means 
(subaud. any one,) Hated. 

I think you must at the same time perceive, that the nau- 
seating (Interjection, as it is called) foh ! or faugh ! is merely 
the same past participle.^ 

*' Foh ! one may smel in such, a will most ranke, 
Foule disproportions, thoughts unnaturall." — Othello, p. 324. 



^ Scerre Menage derives from Eligere. 
Sciarrare from the French Escarter. 
ScJiiera from the Latin Spb'a. 
E'cart from Ex parte. 
And JDecliirer from Bilacerare. 
[" Or ecco Draghinazza a fare sciarra." 

Orlando Innam. {da Berni), lib. 1. cant. 5. st. 44. 
" Impon, che '1 di seguente in un gran campo 
Tutto si raostri a lui schierato il campo." 

Gierusalemme Liberata, cant. 1. st. 34.] 
* " Mt; yevoLTo, in Greake, sygnyfyeth detestacyon, as we speake wyth 
one syllable in Englyshe, fye." — Detection of the Beuils Sophisti'ie^ By 
Steuen Gardiner, Bp. of Winchester, fol. 64, p. J. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 431 

Fen ■) In the explanation of Fenowedj Vinewed or 
Faint J Whinid, the past participle of pynijean ; I men- 
tioned PEN and FAINT, as past participles of the same verb. 
But I forbore at that time to consider them more particularly, 
because no mention had then been made of the change of the 
characteristic letter. [See p. 346.] 

Fan or fen is the past tense, and therefore past participle, 
of jzymjean ; and means corrupted, spoiled, decayed, withered. 
In modern speech we apply fen only to stagnated or corrupted 
water ; but it was formerly applied to any corrupted or decayed, 
or spoiled substance. 

" Quhen that Nisus fallis unhappely 

Apoun the glouit blude, quhar as fast by 

The stirkis for the sacrifyce per case 

War newly brytnit, quhareof all the place 

And the grene ge^'s bedewit was and wet : 

As this younghere hereon tredeand fute set, 

loly and blyith, wening him victour round. 

He slaid and stummerit on the sliddry ground. 

And fell at erd grufelingis amid the fen, 

Or beistis blude of sacrifyce." — Douglas, booke 5. p. 138. 

Faint is Faned, Fand, Fant, or Fened, Fend, Fent. The 
French participle Fane, of the verb Faner or Fener, is also from 
Fynijean. 

" La rose est ainsi appellee pour ce qu'elle jette un grand flux d'odeur, 
aussi est ce pom-quoy elle se fene et se passe bientost." 

Amyot : Morales de Plutarque, 3 liv. Des propos de table. 
[" E come donna ouesta, che permane 
Di se sicura, e per I' altrui fallanza, 
Pure ascoltando timida, si fane ; 
Cosi Beatrice trasmuto sembianza." 

II Faradiso di Dante, cant. 27. 
*' C'est comme dans un jardin ou les roses fanees font place aux 
roses nouvelles." — Jacques le Fataliste et son Maitre : par Diderot, 
torn. 2. p. 10. 

Fymjean. 
English. Fen. Faint. 

Fenowed. Vinewed. Whinid. Vinny.^ 

^ See p. 345 et seq. 



433 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Latin. Vanus. Vanesco. 

Itulian. Fango. AflPanno. Affannare. 

French. Faner. Se Fener. Fange. Evanouir.] 

Raft — As rift {Riv^d) was shewn to be the past participle 
of To Rive; so raft {Rafed) is the past participle of Repan, 
Reajiian, rapere. To Rive, To Reave or Bereave, To Tear 
away. 

Rough (pop) and riff-raff are the same participle. 

" What gylte of me ? what fel experience 
Hath me rafte, alas, thyne aduertence ? 
O truste, faythe, O depe assuraunce 
Who hath me eafte Creseyde." 

Troylus, boke 5. fol. 197. p. 1. col. 2. 

" But priuely she cought forth a knyfe. 
And therwithal she rafte herselfe her lyfe." 

Lucrece^ fol. 216. p. 1. col. 1. 

[" Mischiefe ought to that mischaunce befall, 
That so hath raft us of our memment." 

Shepheai'ds (Calender: August. 

" And stroke at her with more than manly force. 
That from her body, fuU of filthie sin, 
He RAFT her hatefuU heade without remorse." 

Fae?'ie Queetie, book 1. cant. 1. st. 24.] 

Clough*) as well as Cleeve, Cleft, Cliff, Clift, and Cloven, 
Clout J are the past participle of Dhopian^ findere^ To 
Cleave. 

" She fayned her, as that she must gon 
There as ye wote, that euery wight hatha nede, 
And whan she of this byl hath taken hede. 
She rent it al to cloutes, and at last 
Into the preuy sothly she it cast." 

Marchaunti Tale^ fol. 31. p. 2. col. 2. 

" She ne had on but a strayte olde sacke, 
And many a cloute on it there stacke." 

Bo7n. of the Rose, fol. 122. p. 1. col. 1. 

"And cast on my clothes clouted and hole." 

Vision of F. Floughnian, fol. 31. p. 2. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 433 

[" Then as you like this, I will instmct you in all our secrets : for 
there is not a clowte nor corde, nor boord, nor post, that hath not a 
speciall name, or singular nature." — Galathea (by Lily), act 1. sc. 4. 

" His garment, nought but many ragged clouts, 
With thornes together pind and patched was." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 9. st. 36.] 

Clouve, Clough, cleaved or divided — into small pieces. 
Clouvedj Clouv'df Clout. 

" Indeede a must shoote nearer, or heele ne're hit the clout." 

Zone's Lahoiir Lost, act 4. 
Clouted cream is so called for the same reason. 
Woof — as Weft, before noticed, is the past participle of 
Pepan, To Weave. 

" And yet the spacious bredth of this diuision 
Admits no orifex for a point as subtle 
As Ariachne's broken woofe to enter." Troylm and Cressida. 

Tag — as well as tight, is the past participle of Tian, vin- 
cire. 

Ford — S. Johnson says, most untruly, that this w^ord — 
" sometimes signifies the stream, the current, without any con- 
sideration of passage or shallowness.'^ ^ 

As fart, so ford is the past participle of Fapan, To Go; 
and always, without exception, means Gone, i. e. a place Gone 
over or through. 

Wane ^ are all (as well as avant and gaunt before-mentioned) 
Wan V the past participle of Panian, To Wane, To decrease. 
Wand ) To fall away ; and mean Decreased, or fallen away. 



^ "Ford," says Junius, " Vadum, qualiscunque via aut transitus per 
flumen. A.-S. pojib, a pajian, ire, transire : quam originem tradit Gun- 
therus Ligurini sui lib. primo : 

" Sede satis note, rapido quae proxima Mogo 
Clara situ, populoque frequens, muroque decora est, 
Sed rude nomen habet : nam Teutonus iucola dixit 
Frauconefurt ; nobis liceat sermone Latino 
Francorum dixisse Vadum; quia Carolus illic 
Saxonas, indomita nimium feritate rebelles 
Oppugnaus, rapidi latissima flumina Mogi 
Ignoto fregissc vado, medium que per amncm 
Transmisisse suas, neglecto pontc, cohortes 
Creditur, inde locis mansurum nomen inhaesit," 

2 F 



434 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

The moon in the wane, is the moon in a decreased state. 
Skelton, p. 167, Edit. 1736, says — "The waters were wan,^^ 
i. e. decreased. 

[ " All the charmes of loue, 

Salt Cleopatra, soften thy wand lip ! 

Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both ; 

Tye up the libertine in a field of feasts, 

Keepe his braine fuming." — Antony and Cleopatra, p. 345. col.. 1. 

S. Johnson supposes a Fond or Warm lip. Wand here 
means thin or delicate. 

" Eftsoones she cast by force and tortious might 
Her to displace., and to herselfe t' have gained 
The kingdome of the night, and waters by her wained." 

Faerie Queene, Ttoo Cantos of Mutabilitie, cant. 6. st. 10.] 
" His spear, to equal which the taUest pine 
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast 
Of some great ammiral, were but a wand." 

Faradise Lost, book 1. verse 294. 

Tall "^ All these words, as well as Tilt, which we have 
Toll already explained, however different they may at 
Tool j> first sight appear, are all one word, with one mean- 
ToiL ing j and are the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon 
Taille J verb Tihan, To Lift up, To Till. 
Tall, and the French word Taille (as applied to stature), 
i. e. raised, lifted up ; require, I suppose, no explanation. 

[" Buona e la gente, e non pub da piu dotta 
0' da piu forte guida esser condotta." 

Glerusalemme Liberata, cant. 1. st. 61. 
" Tall were the men, and led they could not be 
By one more strong, or better skil'd than he." 

Godfrey of Bidloigne, translated by R. C. 

N.B. For this use of the word tall, see B. Jonson, Every 
Man in his Humour, and elsewhere.] 

Toll, and the French word Taille (which is taken of Goods) 
differ only in pronunciation and consequent writing of them. 
It is a part lifted off or taken away. Nor will this use of the 
word appear extraordinary, when we consider the common ex- 
pressions of — To raise taxes — To Levy taxes — Lever des impots. 
— A Levy upon any persons — Une Levee. 



CH. IT.] OF ABSTRACTION. 435 

The TOLL of a bell^ is_, its being Lifted up, which causes that 
sound we call its toll. 

Tool is (some instrument^ any instrument) Lifted up, or 
taken up, to work with. 

Toil (for labour), applied perhaps at first principally to 
having Tilled (or lifted up) the earth ; afterwards to other sorts 
of labour. The verb was formerly written in English Tueil and 
Tuail. 

."Biholde ye the lilies of the feeld hou thei wexen : thei tueilen not, 
nether spinnen." — Matheu, eh. 6. 

" Greteth well Marie : the whiche hath tuailid myche in us." 

JRomans, oh. 16. 

Toil (for a snare) is any thing Lifted up or raised, for the 
purpose of ensnaring any animal. As, A spider's web is a toil 
(something Lifted up) to catch flies : springes and nets, toils 
for other animals. 

Batch — as well as bacon (before explained) is the past partici- 
ple of Bacan, To Bake. The indifferent pronunciation of ch or k, 
ought not to cause any difficulty : for it prevails throughout the 
whole language. As Link and Linch, Rick and Rich, &c. 

A batch of bread, is, the bread Baked at one time. 

I have already said that barren is the past participle of the 
verb To Bar : and that, when we apply this word Barren either 
to land or to females, we assert the passage, either from the 
womb or the earth, to be Barr-en or Barr-ed from bearing any 
thing into the world or into life. 

Our English verb To Bar is the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon 
verb KAlKfA^^ Beopjan, Bipjan, Bypjan; which means, 
To Defend, To Keep safe, To Protect, To Arm, To Guard, To 
Secure, To Fortify, To Strengthen. And the past participle of 
this verb has furnished our language with the following sup- 
posed substantives : 



[BAlKrAN. Bypjan. 



A BAR 

A barrier 

A BARGAIN 
A BARGE 

The BARK of a doj? 



The BARK of a tree 
A BARK-^a ship 

A BARKEN 
A BARRACK 
A BARN 

2 F 2 



436 



OF ABSTRACTION. 



[pArt II. 



A BARON Guarantee 

A BOROWE ^ War 

A borough Warrior 

The BOROUGH of Southwark Guard 

A BURGESS Ward 

A BURGH A HAUBERK 

A BURGHER USBERGO Itttl. 

Burial Hauberg Fr. 

A BARROW ^ A barbican 

A BURROW^ or warren Barbarity^ 

Warranty . Barbarous 

Guaranty Barmekin 
Warrant 

A BAR^ in all its uses is a Defence : that by which any thing 
is fortified, strengthened, or defended. 

A BARN {Bar-en, Bar'n) is a covered inclosure, in which the 
grain &c. is protected or defended from the weather, from 
depredation, &c. 

A BARON is an armed, defenceful, or powerful man. 

A BARGE is a strong boat. 

A bargain is a confirmed, strengthened agreement. After 
two persons have agreed upon a subject, it is usual to conclude 
with asking — Is it a bargain ? Is it confirmed ? 

A BARK is a stout vessel. 

The BARK of a tree is its defence : that by which the tree is 
defended from the weather &c. 

" The cause is, for that trees last according to the strength and quan- 
tity of their sap and juice; being well munitedhy their bark against the 
injuries of the air." — Bacons Natural History, cent. 6. 

The BARK of a dog is that by which we are defended by that 
animal. 

A BARKEN, according to Skinner — " Vox in comitatu Wilts 



^ [See Borseholder, in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 3. p. 405.] — 
[Borhs-older ; See Schultes's Inquiry into the Elective FrancJiise of the 
Citizens of London, 1823 . — Ed .] 

^ [In Dorsetshire and in Cornwall sepulchral hillocks are called 

BARROWS.] 

'^ \Bapvs. — Barbarus, i. e. Bar-bar-US, reduplication of Bar, for very 
strong. Seneca, lib. 1. de Ira, describes them — " Barb arcs tanto 
robustiores corporibus." — 4ta Edit. Lipsii, p. 8.] 



CH. IV. J OF ABSTRACTION. 437 

usitatissima. Atrium, a Yard of a liouse, vel a verbo To Barr ; 
vel a Germ. BergeUj abscondere ; A.-S. Beopjan, munire, q. d. 
locus clausus, respectu sc. agrorum." 

A HAUBERK. Vossius, Wachtcr and Caseneuve concur in 
its etymology. — " Halsherga vel Halsperga, vox est Saxonica, 
propiieque signat thoracem ferreum_, sive armaturam colli et 
pectoris ; ab Hals, collum^ et Bergen, tegere, protegere, munire. 
Quomodo et in Legg. Ripuariis, cap. 36. §. 11, Bainherga, 
pro ocrea/ sive crurum armatura." — Vossius^ Be vitiis sermonis, 
lib. 2. cap. 9. 

The Frencli, in their accustomed manner changing the l in 
J>alj^ to u, made the word hauberg : and the Italians, in their 
manner, made it usbergo. 

A BURGH or BOROUGH meant formerly a fortified Town} 

[Spenser says unadvisedly : ' — 

" By that which I have read of a borough, it signifieth a Free Towne, 
which had a principal! officer, called a Headborough, to become ruler, 
and undertake for all the dwellers under him." 

Spenser, View of the State of Ireland. 

^ [The Boot was much used by the ancients, by the foot as well as 
the horsemen. It was called by the ancient Romans ocrea ; in middle- 
age writers, greva, gambera, benberga, bainbarga, and bemberga. The 
boot is said to have been the invention of the Carians. It was at first 
made of leather, afterwards of brass or iron, and was proof both against 
cuts and thrusts. It was from this that Homer paUs the Greeks brazen- 
booted. The boot only covered half the leg ; some say the right leg, 
which was more advanced than the left, it being advanced forward in an 
attack with the sword ; but in reality it appears to have been used on 
either leg, and sometimes on both. Those who fought with darts or 
other missile weapons, advanced the left leg foremost, so that this only 
was booted. — Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 3. p. 393.] 

^ [Bourguignons or Burgundians, one of the Northern nations who 
overran the lloman empire and settled in Gaul. ' They were of a great 
stature, and very warlike ; for which reason the Emperor Valentinian 
the Great engaged them in his service against the Germans. They lived 
in tents which were close to each other, that they might the more readily 
unite in arms on any unforeseen attack. These conjunctions of tents 
they called burgs ; and they were to them what towns are to us. 

Encyclopredla Britannica, vol. 3. p. 486.] 

^ [Perhaps Spenser's grounds for making this distinction are better 
than Mr. Tookc seeems to have thought. But there appears to have 
been a confusion ia the use of the word Frauciplegium for Frid-borg, 
which is pledge for the peace, and not free borough. — See Schultes's 
Inquiry. Bury, designating a town, should perhaps be traced to Buan, 
To abide. See Additional Notes. — Ed.] 



438 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Again — 

"A BOROGH, as I here use it, and as the old lawes still use it, is not 
a BOROUGH towne, as they now call it, that is, a franchised towne, but 
a main pledge of 100 free persons, therefore called a free borough or 
(as you say) Pranci-plegium : for borh in old Saxon siguifieth a pledge 
or surety, and yet it is so used with us in some speeches, as Chaucer 
saith j — ' St. John to borrow ; ' that is, for assurance and Warranty'^ 

Spenser i Vieto of the Stdite of Ireland. 

For BERiA, see Encyclopaedia Britannica, where I think the 
Encyclopedist is, without and against all reason^ misled by Du 
Fresne,, who is himself misled.] 

A BURROW for rabbets &c. is a defended or protected place : 
to which a warren is synonymous_, meaning the same thing : 
for warren is the past participle of ejiian, defendere, pro- 
tegere_, tueri. 

" Foxis han borwis or dennes, and Briddis of the eir han nestis ; 
but mannes sone hath not where he shal reste his hede." 

Mattheu, ch. 8. v. 20. 

[War. — On Jjij-um bocum up j-ej^ )?at: Saul paej* 
jecojien sejiej't fco cynmje on Ippahela pGODG. jioji 
]?an]?e hij polbon pumne pGRIGND habban Jjc hi je- 
heolbe pi^ ]?8et hsel^ene pole. . . . J>p8et )?a Samuel psebe 
)>ac Dobe. anb Ijob him IrGpAFODG "Sac hij petcon 
him fco kinmje Saul Cipej' j'unu. anb he j'l'S^an jiixobe 
peopejitij jeajia psec. anb J>at: pole BGpGRODG. 

^Ifric. de Veteri TestamentOj p. 13. 

J>e hij' pole jeheolb butan ^Icum IrGFGODTG. 

Id. p. 14.] 

A BOROWE was formerly used for what we now caU a Secu- 
rity, any person or thing by which repayment is secured; and 
by which the Lender is defended or guarded from the loss of 
his loan. 

" Thou broughtest mo borowes my biddings to fulfyll." 

Vis. of P. Ploughman, fol. 5. p. 2. 

" For I dare be his bold borowe that do bet will he neuer." 

Ibid. fol. 47. p. 2. 

*' And I will be your bor'ow ye shall haue bred and cloth." 

Ibid. fol. 115. p. 1. 

" We fynde in the lyfe of saynt Nycholas, that a lewe lente a crystcn 
man a grctc somme of goldc unto a ccrtayne daye, and toke no syker- 
nesse'of him, but his fayth and saynt Nycholas to borowe." 

Dines and Paiiper, 2d Conini. cap. 9. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 439 

" I praye God and saynt Nycholas that was tliy bokowe, that harde 
vengeaunce come to the." — Diues and Pauper, 2d Comm. cap. 9. 

" Yf the Borower. upon usure fayle of his daye of payment, he that is 
his BOROWE may paye that moneye with the usure to the Lener, and do 
his dettour for whome he is borowe paye to hym ay en that moneye with 
the usure. For it is to the borowe none usui'e." 

Ibid. 7th Comm. cap. 35. 
[ " St. John to BORROW.'* Chaucer. 

" This was the first sourse of shepheards sorrow. 
That now nill be quitt with baile nor borow." 

Shepheards Calender : May. 
"Nay, say I thereto, by my dear borrowe, 

If I may rest, I nill live in sorrowe." Ibid. 

" They boast they han the devill at commaund, 
But aske hem therefore what they han paund : 
Marrie ! that great Pan bought with deare borrow, 
To quite it from the blacke bowre of sorrow." — Ibid. September. 
" Like valiant champions aduance forth your standardes, aod assay 
whether your enemies can decide and try the title of battaile by dint of 
sword ; auaunce, I say again, forward, my captaines, — Now Saint 
George to Borrow let us set forward." 

Holinshed {after HalT)^ Richard ^d. 
" He made it strange, and swore, so God him saue, 
Lasse then a thousand ponde wold he not haue, 
Ne gladly for that somme nolde he it don. 
Aurelyus with blissfull herte anon 
Answerde thus : fye on a thousand pounde. 
This wyde world, which men say is rounde, 
I wolde it yeue, if I were lorde of it. 
Thys bargayne is ful driue, for we be knit ; 
Ye shal be payde timely by my.trouthe, 
But loke nowe for no neglygence or slouthe, 
Ye taryen us here no langer than to morowe. 
Nay (qd this clerk) here my trouth to borow." 

Jranheleyns Tale, fol. 54. p. 1. col. 2. 
" Her loue of frendshyp haue I to the won, 
And therfore hath she laid her faith to borrow." 

Troylus, boke 2. fol. 168. p. l._col. 3. 
" Sir, put you in that auenture, 
For though ye borowes take of me. 
The sykerer shall yc neuer be 
. For hostages, ne sykernesse, 
Or chartres, for to beare wytnesse. 



440 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

And Loue answerde, I trust the 
Without BOuowE, for I wol none." 

Momannt of tJie Bose, fol. 155. p. 1. col. 1 & 2.] 

Burial^ Byjijel, is the diminutive of Byjiij or Burgh ; a 
defended or fortified place. To Bury, Bypjan, sepelire, means 
To Defend : as Gray in liis Elegy expresses it — " These bones 
from insult to protect." It cannot escape you_, that the Latin 
sepelire has the same meaning : for seps or sepes " notat id, 
quod objectum, prohibet introitum in agrum vel hortum." 

Stern, in its different applications, has already been shewn 
to be the past participle of the verb 8tijian, To Stir, To Steer, 
To Move. This participle also gives us the following sub- 
stantives. 

Store "^ A store is the collective term for any quantity 
Stour ' or number of things stirred or moved into some 
Sturt one place together. 

Start }- 

Stir Stour (A.-S. j'tup), formerly in much use. 

Sturdy ) means moved, stirred : and was applied equally to 
E'tourdi J dust, to water, and to men ; all of them things 
easily moved. 

" Besely our folkis ganto pingil and strife, 
Swepand the flude with lang routhis belife, 
And up thai welt the stoure of fomy see." 

Douglas, booke 3. p. 77. 
" Upsprang the clamour, and the rerd furth went 
Hie in the skyis of mony marinere. 
The fomy stoure of seyis rays thare and here." 

Ibid, booke 5. p. 132. 
*' Bot we that bene of nature derf and doure 
•Cummin of kynde as kene men in ane stoure." 

Ibid, booke 9. p. 299. 
" Be this the Troianis in thare new ciete 
Ane dusty sop uprisand gan do se. 
Full thik of stoure upthryngand in the are." — Ibid. p. 274. 

" The stoure encressis furius and wod." — Ibid, booke 11. p. 387. 
" And not forsoith the lakkest weriour, 
Bot forcy man and richt stalwart in stoure." — Ibid. p. 389. 

" The silucr scalit fyschis on the grete, 
Ouer thwort clere streracs sprinkilland for the hetc. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 441 

With fynnys scliinand broun as synopare. 
And chesal talis, stourand here and thare." 

Douglas, Prol. to booke 12. p. 400. 

" The knyght was fayre and styffe in stour." 

Rom. of the Hose, fol. 126. p. 1. col. 1. 

" They fight, and bringen horse and man to gTOunde, 
And with her axes out the braynes quel, 
But in the laste stoure, sothe to tel, 
The folke of Troy hem seluen so misleden 
That with the worse at night home they fleden." 

Troylus, boke 4. fol. 182. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Lo a greet styryng was maid in the see, so that the litil ship was 
hilid with \'v^.w'^^''—rMattheu, ch. 8. v. 24. 

" There found Sir Bors more greater defence in that knight then hee 
wend, for that Sir Priden was a full good knight, and hee wounded Sir 
Bors full euill and hee him againe. But euer this Sir Priden held the 
STOURE in like hard." — Hist, of Prince Arthur, 3rd part, ch. 72. 
" Then began a great sturre and much people was there slaine." 

Ibid. ch. 154. 

" He in the midst of all this sturre and route, 
Gan bend his browe, and moue himselfe about." 

Songes ^c. By the Earle of Surrey Sfc. fol. 89. p. 2. 

" And after those braue spirits in all those baleful stowrs 
That with Duke Robert went against the pagan powers." 

Poly-olbion, song 16. 

*' Such strange tumultuous stirs upon this strife ensue." 

Ibid, sonff 4. 



'O 



Who with the same pretence 



In Norfolk rais'd such stirs, as but with great expence 

Of blood was not appeas'd." Ibid, song 22. 

" Better redresse was entended, then your upstirres and unquiet- 
nesse coulde obtaine." — IIu7't of Sedition, By Sir J. Cheke. 

" Your pvetensed cause of this monstrous sturre, is to encrease mens 
welth."— /^iW. 

" How daungerous it is to make sturres at home, when they doe 
not only make oursclues weake, but also our eniraies stronge." — Ibid. 

[" In rcligton and libertie were sayd to be of many men the very cause 
of all these sturries." — B. Ascham, in a Letter to I. Astely, p. 7.] 

Sturt is formed in the usual manner from stour, ftup. 
Stur-edj Stur^d, Sturt. 



442 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" Dolorus my Ijfe I led in sturt and pane." 

Douglas, booke 2. p. 41. 
" Hyr moder, quham sa sone full desolate 
Tone fals se reuer wyl leif in sturt, God wate." 

Ibid, booke 7. p. 219. 
" Sufiir me swelt, and end this cruel lyffe, 
Quhil doutsum is yit aU syc sturt and striffe." 

. Ibid, booke 8. p. 263. 

A start and a stir require neither instance nor explanation. 

By the accustomed addition of 15 or y, to stour or jtup, we 
have also the adjective sturdy, and the French Estourdi, 
Etourdi. 

Storm — the past participle of Sfcypmian, agitare, furere. 

Day — is the past participle Daj, of the Anglo-Saxon Dsejian^, 
lucescere. By adding the participial termination en to Daj, 
we have Dajen or dawn already mentioned. 

I told you some time since that a churn is the past participle 
Cypen, of the Anglo-Saxon verb Cypan, 7Ccypan_, vertere, 
revertere ; and that it means Turned, Turned about, or Turned 
backwards and forwards. This same verb Gypan, gives us also 
the following, 



[Cyjian. 



Char 

Chair, chair 

Chewr 

Chur-worm 

Car 

Cardinal 

Latin, carrus, cardo, carbo.] 



Cart 

Char-woman, charcoal 

Chair-man 

Chariot, charioteer 

A-JAR 

To Jar 



" A woman, and commanded 

By such poore passion as the maid that milkes 

And does the meanest chares."^ — Antony and Cleopatra, p. 364. 
" And when thou hast done this chare. He giue thee leaue 

To play till doomesday." Ibid. p. 367. 



^ Mr. Steevens, at this passage, cites Hey wood's Bape of Lucrece : 
" She, like a good wife, is teaching her servants sundry chares.'* 
And Promos and Cassa7idra : 

" Well, 1 must trudge to do a certain chare." 



CH. IV.] OP ABSTRACTION. 443 

" That CHAR is char'd ; as the good wife said, when she hang'd her 
husband." — Ray 8 Froverhs, p. 182. 

"Here's two chewres chetvr'd' when wisdom- is employ'd 
'T is ever thus." — Beaumont and Metcher^ Martial Maid. 

" All 's CHARD when he is gone." — Ihid. Two Noble Kinsmen. 

" Lyke as ane bull dois rummesing and rare, 
Quhen he eschapis hurt one the altare, 
And CHARRis by the ax wdth his nek wycht, 
Grif on the forehede the dynt hittis not richt." 

Douglas, booke 2. p. 46. 
" The watches of Lapland are the Diuel's CHARE-women." 

Beaumont and Metclier, Tair Moid of the Inn. 

" Charre folks are never paid."- — Bray's Proverbs, p. 87. 

" The pyping wind blaw up the dure on char." 

Douglas, booke 3. p. 83. 
" Ane ScJiot windo unschet ane litel on char." 

Ibid. Prol. to booke 7. p. 202. 

Menage^ Minshew^ Junius, Skinner, &c. have' no resource for 
tlie derivation of chair, but the Greek KaOehpa ; in which they 
all agree. But, though they travel so far for it, none of them 
has attempted to shew by what steps they proceed from KaOeSpa 
to chair. The process would be curious upon paper. But 
KaOe^pa, though a Seat, is not a chair ; nor does it convey the 
same meaning. Chair is a species of Seat. It is not a fixed, 
but a moveable seat ; Turned about and Returned at pleasure : 
and from that circumstance it has its denomination : It is a 
CHAiR-seat. 

Car, cart, chariot, &c. and the Latin carrus are the 



^ [A remarkable floating island in this country. — Adjoining Eas- 
thwaite-water, near Hawkshead, Lancashire, there is a tarn (or small 
lake) called Priestpot, upon which is an island, containing about a rood 
of land, mostly covered with willows ; some of them eighteen or twenty 
feet high. This island is distinguished by the name of The Car. At 
the breaking up of the severe frost in the year 1795, a boy ran into the 
house of the proprietor of this island, who lived within view of it, and 
told him that " his Car was coming up the Tarn." The proprietor and 
his family soon proved the truth of the boy's report, and beheld with 
astonishment, not " Birnam-wood removed to Dunsinane ! " but the 
woody island approaching them with slow and majestic motion. It 
rested, however, before it reached the edge of the tarn, and afterwards 



444 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

same participle. This word was first introduced into the Roman 
language by C8esar_, who learned it in his war with the Germans. 
Vossius mistakingly supposes it 'derived from Currus. 

So CHAR-coal is wood Turned coal by fire.^ We borrow 
nothing here from Carbone ; but the Latin etymologists must 
come to us for its meanings which they * cannot find elsewhere. 
As they must likewise for Cardo ; ^ that on which the door is 
Turned and Returned. 

" This is the station of the cause, the argument and material of aR 
Paules pistels, even the tredsole or grounds ole wherupon, as the dore 
is Turned and Returned^ so are all his argumentes and proces therupon 
treated and retreated." — declaration ^c. against loye, fol. 25. p. 1. 



frequently changed its position as the wind directed; being sometimes 
seen at one side of the lake, which is about two hundred yards across, 
and sometimes in the centre. It is conjectured to have been long 
separated from the bed of the lake, and only fastened by some of the 
roots of the trees, which were probably broken by the extraordinary rise 
of the water on the melting of the ice. 

Charrue, the French name for a plough. A. carpenter, in French 
Charpentier. Charta, Lat. 

CJiarterparty . " The present Boyer says the word comes from hence, 
that per medium charta incidebatur, et sic fiebat charta partita ; because, 
in the time when notaries were less common, there was only one instru- 
ment made for both parties : this they cut in two, and gave each his 
portion ; joining them together at their return, to know if each had done 
his part." — Encyclopcedia Britannica, Edit. 3d. 1797. vol. 4.. p. 360.] 

^ [" I no longer see the human heart char'd in the flame of its own 
vile and paltry passions." 

Mr. Currans Speech for Owen Kirwaii, Edit. 1805.] 

^ Cakbo, say the Latin etymologists, from Careo ; quia caret flamma. 
Or from Kapcpco, arefacio. Or from the Chaldaic. 

^ " Caudo unde sit, docere conatus Servius ad 1 Mn. : Cardo, inquit, 
dictus, quasi cor januse, quo movetur, otto rr}s Kapdias. Et Isidorus, lib. 
XV. cap. vii. Cardo, inquit, est locus in quo ostium vertitur et semper 
movetur, dictus ano tt)s Kapbias; quod, quasi Cor hominem totum, ita 
ille cuneus januam regat ac moveat. Unde et proverbiale est. In cardine 
rem esse. 

" De etymo longe verisimiliora sunt quae Martinius adfert : nempe 
ut Kara fieraOea-Lv sit a Kpadr}, hoc est, hamus, vel aliud ex quo quid sus- 
penditur. Vel a Kpadaw, hoc est agito ; in cardiuibus enira janua agi- 
tatur vertittcrque. Horum alterum malim quam ut vel sit a Kpareo), 
Jirmiter terieo ; quia januam retinet. Vel a Kapros pro Kpuros, hoc est, 
rohur^Jirmitas, quam janua in solis cardiuibus habet." — G. J. Vossius. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 445 

A CHUR-worm is so called^ because it is Turned about with 

great celerity. 

To set the door or the window achar^ which we now write 
AJAR (or, as Douglas writes it, on char) is to put it neither 
quite open nor quite shut, but on the turn or return to 
either. 

A CHAR-woman is one who does not abide in the house 
where she works, as a constant servant, but Returns home to 
her own place of abode, and Returns again to her work when 
she is required. 

A CHAR, when used alone, means some single separate act, 
such as we likewise call a Turn, or a Bout, not any uninter- 
mitted coherent business or employment of long continuance. 
And in the same sense as char was formerly used, we now use 

the word Turn. T ^11 have a Bout with him. — I '11 take a 

Turn at it. — That Turn is served — (Which is equivalent to — 
That CHAR is chared ; though not so quaintly expressed, as it 
would be by saying — That Turn is Turned.) — One good Turn 
deserves another. All these are common phrases. 

" Doe my lord of Canterbury 

A shrewd Turne ; and hee 's j^our friend for euer." 

Henry VIII. p. 230. 

" Palse gelden, gang thy gait, 

And du thy Turns betimes : or I' is gar take 

Thy new breikes fi'a' thee, and thy dublet tu." — Sad Shepherd. 

" Gi' me my tankard there, hough. It 's six a clock : I should ha' 
carried two Turns, by this," — Ik>ery Man in his Humour, act 1. sc. 4. 

F. — What is the name of that fish which one of your 
friends 

H. — Oh ! you mean my gentle and amiable friend, Michael 
Pearson : forty long years my steady and uniform accomplice 
and comforter in all my treasons ; equally devoted with myself 
to the rights and happiness of our countrymen and fellow- 
creatures; which, for the last forty years in this country has 
by some persons been accounted the worst of treason. Yes : 
It was char that he sent us : and I believe with Skinner, that 
it is so called — " quia hie piscis rapide et celeriter se in aqua 
vertit." 



446 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART IT. 

Yare *j are the past participle of the Anglo- Saxon verb 
Yard J rryjipan, Dypian, To Prepare : and it is formed in 

the accustomed manner, by changing the characteristic letter y 

to A. Yare means Prepared. 

" The wiride was good, the ship was yare, 
Thei toke her leue, and forth thei fare." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 101. p. 3. col. 1. 
" In all hast made hir yare 

Towarde hir suster for to fare." — Ibid. fol. 114. p. 1. col. 2. 
" And bad the maister make hym yare, 
Tofore the wynde for he wolde fare." 

Ibid. lib. 8. fol. 184. p. 1. col. 1. 
" This Tereus let make his shyppes yare. 
And into Greece himselfe is forth yfare." 

Chaucer, Phylomene, fol. 218. 
" I do desire to learne, Sir : and 1 hope, if you haue occasion to use 
me for your owne Turne, you shall find me yare. For truly. Sir, for 
your kindnesse, I owe you a good Ttmie.'" 

Measure for Measure, p. 76. 

A YARD, to mete, or to measure with (before any certain 
extent was designated by the word) was called a GOet-jeapb, or 
CQete-jypb, or Mete-yard, i. e. something Prepared to mete or 
to measure with. This was its general name : and that prepared 
extension might be formed of any proper materials. When it 
was of wood, it was formerly called a yardwand, i. e. a Wand 
prepared for the purpose. By common use, when we talk of 
mensuration, we now omit the preceding word MetCy and the 
subsequent Wand; and say singly a yard. 

Yar-^en, Yar'n, Yarn, has been already explained (p. 357.) 

To those participles noticed by me in the beginning of our 
conversation, and which terminated in ed, t, and en, I have 
now added those which are also formed from the same verbs by 
a change of th^ characteristic letter. And I may now proceed 
to other verbs Avhicli, by a change of the • characteristic i or y, 
have furnished the language with many other supposed Nouns, 
which are really Participles. 

Dot.— Skinner says '' Muci globus vel grumus, fort, a Teut. 
Dotter, ovi vitellus, i. e.. Muci crassioris globus vitello ovi in- 
crassato similis." Johnson says — " It seems rather corrupted 
from Jot." 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 447 

Dot is merely the past participle of tlie Anglo-Saxon verb 
Dyccan, occluder e^ obturare, To Stop up, To Shut in. It has 
tbe same meaning as Dytteb, Ditted, occlusum. It is not 
" made to mark any place in a writing ; " but is_, what we call, 
a fuU stop. Tbe verb To Dit, To Stop up, is used, in its par- 
ticiple, by Douglas : 

*' The riuaris dittit witli dede corpsis wox rede 
Under bodyis bullerand ; for sic multitude 
Of slaucMer he maid, quhil Exanthus the flude 
Mycht fynd no way to rin unto the see." — Booke 5. p. 153. 

*' gemerentque repleti 

Amnes, nee reperire viam atque evolvere posset 
In mare se Xanthus.'* 

Lid ^ These \words, though seemingly of such different 
Lot significations, have all but one meaning : viz. 

Blot y Covered, Hidden. And the only difference is in 
Glade I their modern distinct application or different sub- 
Cloud J audition. 

Lid and lot were iti the Anglo-Saxon written J^lib and 
KMoC; and these, by the change of the characteristic letter 
I to I short and to o (as Writ, Wrote, Wroot, Wrat, Wrate, 
of ppican. To Write ^) are the regular past tense, and therefore 
past participle of J^liban, tegere, operire, To Cover. The 
Anglo-Saxon participle )>lib, suppressing the aspirate, is the 
English LID, i. e. that by which any thing (vessel, box, &c.) is 
Covered. 

The Anglo-Saxon participle J^lob or J^lot, suppressing the 
aspirate, is the Euglish lot, i. e. (something) Covered or 
Hidden. 

" Playeng at the dyce standeth in lotte and auenture of the dyee." 

I)iu£8 and Pauper, 1st Comm. cap. 38. 



^ [Puttenhara in his Arte of English Poesie, speaking of Thomas 
Chaloner, says — " that other gentleman who wrate the late Shepheardes 
Calender." 

" And, her before, the vile Enchaunter sate, 
Eigiu-ing straunge characters of his art : 
With living blood he those characters wrate." 

Faerie Queeue, book 3. cant. 12. st. 31.] 



418 OP ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

So we say — To draw lots. And To put any thing to the 

LOT. 

Indifferently with J>hban our ancestors used Be-hhban and 
Ere-hbban, with the same meaning. 

Be-hlob or Be-hloc is the regular past tense and past par- 
ticiple of Be-hliban, tegere; which is become our English 
BLOT : and you cannot fail to observe that a blot upon any 
thing extends just as far as that thing is Covered, and no 
further. 

De-hlyb^ Ire-hlib, Ire-hlob^ De-hlab_, is the regular past tense 
and past participle of De-hliban : and De-hlab^ is become the 
English GLADE ; applied to a spot Covered or Hidden with trees 
or boughs. 

[ " the ioyous sliade • 

Which shielded them against the boyling heat, 
And with greene boiighes decking a gloomy glade, 
About the fountaine like a girlond made." 

Faerie Queene^ book 1. cant. 7. st. 4. 

"At last he came unto a gloomy glade. 
Covered with boughes and shrubs from heavens light." 

Ihid. book 3. cant. 7. st. 3. 

*' Upon our way to which we weren bent, 
We chaunst to come foreby a covert glade." 

Ihid. book 6. cant. 2. st. 16. 

" Farre in the forrest, by a hollow glade 
Covered with mossie shrubs, which spredding brode 
Did underneath them make a gloomy shade." — Ihid. cant. 4. st. 13. 

■ " Till that at length unto a woody glade 

He came, whose covert stopt his further sight." 

Ihid. cant. 5. st. 17. 

" For noon-day's heat are closer arbours made, 
And for fresh ev'ning air the op'ner glade." 

Dry den's Jail of Man, act 2. sc. 1. 

" Within that wood there was a covert glade." 

Faerie Qneene, book 3. cant. 5. st. 17. 

" Into that forest farre they thence him led, 
Where was their dwelling ; in a pleasant glade 
With mountaines rownd about environed 
And mightie woodes, which did the valley shade." — Ihid. st. 39. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 449 



As doth an eger hound 



Thrust to an hynd within some covert glade." 

Faerie Queene, book 4. cant. 6. st. 12. 

*' Unto those woods he turned backe againe. 
Full of sad anguish and in heavy case : 
And finding there fit solitary place 
For wofull wight, chose out a gloomy glade, 
Where hardly eye mote see bright heavens face." 

Ibid. cant. 7. st. 38.] 

From the same participle,, I suppose^ is formed our English 
word CLOUD. ^ Gehlodj Gehloudj Gloiid, Cloud. For the same 
reason the Latin word Nubes was formed from Nuhere ; which 
means To Cover. — " Quia coelum Nubit, i. e. operit ; '' says 
Varro. And therefore Nupta (i. e. Nubita, Nubta) is Femme 
Couverte, 

In the same manner. 

Lock "l^in the Anglo-Saxon Loc, Beloc, are the regular 
Block j past participles of Lycan, Be-lycan, obserare, 

claudere. 

So 

Last "^in the Anglo-Saxon J^lsefCe and Be-hla3]^t:e, are 
Ballast J the past participles of J^lsepcan and Be-hlsepcan, 

onerare. The French Lester is the same word, dismissing the 

aspirate, and changing the Anglo-Saxon infinitive termination 

an for the French infinitive termination er. 



^ " Cloud videtur esse a k\v8cov, fluctus, unda ; quod nubes undatim 
veluti fluctuent in media aeris regione : vel qaod imbres nubibus fusos 
horridus undarura de montibus deeidentium fragor et minax exsestuan- 
tium consurgentiumque torrentiura facies consequi soleat." — Junius. 

"Cloud, Nubes, Minshew deflectit a Claudo ; quia percludit et in- 
tercipit nobis solem. Somner a Clod et Clodded j quia sc. est vapor 
'concretus : sed utr. violentum est. Mer. Casaub. tamen longe violen- 
tius deducit a Gr. axKvs. Quid si deducerem ab A.-S. Elur, Pannus, 
nobis Clout ; quia, instar panni, solem obtegerc videtur ? Sed nihil 
horum satisfacit. Mallem igitur aBelg. X/«^6?6', macula, litura; Klad- 
den, maculare, focdare ; et sane omnino ut maculae seu liturai chartam 
puram, ita nubes aerem foedant et deturpant : hoc tandem ab alt. 
Klot, Klotte, nobis Clod, grumus, formare fortcan non abs re esset." — 
Skinner. 

2 G 



450 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART IT. 

Blaze ") A blaze or Blase is tlie past tense (used as a parti- 
Blast J ciple) of Blsej^an, flare : By adding to Blase, the 
participial termination ed_, we have Biased, Biased, blast. 

Frost — is the past participle of Fpy]'an_, To Freeze, By the 
change of the characteristic y, the regular past tense is ppofe, 
which we now write Froze : adding the participial termination 
ED, we have Frosed, Fros'd, Frost, 

[Drum — is the past participle of Dpeman, Dpyman, " To 
make a joyful noise : ^^ for so the word is used in Psalms xlvi. 1 ; 
Ixxxi. 1 ; xcv. 1, 2 ; &c. 

Trump and trumpet — in Dutch tromp, trompet. Italian, 
TROMBA, says Menage, ^^Da Tuba, Truba, Trumba, tromba, 
e derivazione indubitata." — And perhaps triumph-us. 

German, trompe, trompette, trommette ; Danish, trom- 
pette ; German, drommeten, or trompeten. To Trumpet ; 
Swedish, trumpet. In Dutch, trom.] 

Nod — is the past participle of J^nijan, caput inclinare. The 
past tense of J^nijan is )>nah. By adding to )^nah or Nah 
the participial termination ed, we have Nahed, Nah^d, Nad (a 
broad) or nod. 

Oak — A.-S. S'ac. of lean. 

Yoke — is the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb De-ican. 
lean, addere, adjicere, augere, jungere, gives us the English 
verb To Ich (now commonly written To Eke). 

" I speake too long, but 'tis to peize the time, 
To iCH it, and to draw it out in length." 

Merchant of Venice, p. 173. 

Ire-ican, by the change of the characteristic i io o, gives us 
the past tense and past participle Deoc : which (by our accus- 
tomed substitution of y for Cr) we now write yok or yoke. 

" It is fulle good to a man whan he hath borne the yok of our Lorde. 
from his youthe." — Diues and Fauper, 1st Comm. cap. 21. 

This same participle gives the Latin juG-wm, and the Italian 
Gioyo. 

Old") by the change of the characteristic i or y, is the 
Eld j past tense and past participle of the Anglo-Saxon 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 451 

verb Ylban, Ilban, To Remain, To Stay, To Continue, To Last, 
To Endure, To Delay, To Defer, morari, cunctari_, tardare, 
differre. And this verb (though now lost to the language) was 
commonly used in the Anglo-Saxon with that meaning, without 
any denotation of long antiquity. As we now say — A week 
OLD, Two days old^ But a minute old. 

"As youth passeth, so passeth their beaute. And as they olde, so 
they fade." — Diues and Pauper ^ 4th Comm. cap. 27. 
" The tyme that eldeth our auncestours 
Aud ELDETH kynges and emperours, 
The tyme that hath all in welde 
To ELDEN folke." Rom. of the Bose, fol. 121. p. 2. col. 2. 

Ope 

Ope (by the change of the characteristic y to o) is 
^the regular past tense of Yppan, aperire, pandere. 
By adding to which the participial termination en, 
we have the past participle open. 



Open 

Gap 

Gape 

Chap 

Chaps 



A GAP and a gape, are the regular past tense and past 
participle of De-yppan, by the change of the characteristic 
Y to A. 

A CHAP and chaps vary from the foregoing only by pro- 
nouncing cH instead of g. But the meaning and etymology 
are the same. 



Poke 
Pock 
Pocks 

or 
Pox 



Poke and pock (by the change of the characteristic 
>Y to o) is the regular past tense and past participle 
of the Anglo-Saxon Pycan, To Pyke, or To Peck. 



"Than cometh the Pye or the rauene and pyketh out the one eye. 
Than cometh the fende and pyketh out ther ryght eye, and maketh 
them lese conscyence anent God. After he pyketh out theyr lyfte eye." 
— JDiues and Pauper, 9th Comm. cap. 7. 

" Heretikes shall not thereby pike any matter of cauillation against 
us." — JDr. Martin^ Of Priestes unlaiful Mariages, ch. 10. p. 145. 

Pock is so applied as we use it ; because where the pustules 
have been, the face is usually marked as if it had been picked 
or pecked. We therefore say pitted with the small pocks (or 

2 G 2 



452 OP ABSTRACTION, [PART II. 

pox). And the French— joico^e de la petite verole. The 
French Piquer and Picoter are both from the Anglo-Saxon 
Pycan. 

Menage says — " Picote. On appelle ainsi en Poitou la petite 
verole. Ce mot se trouve dans Rabelais,, 4, 52." " U\m y 
avoit la Picote, Tautre le tac, Fautre la verole." " De piquer ^ 
cause que le visage en est sou vent marque." 

Smoke — is the regular past tense and past participle of 
SmicaUj fumare. 

Pit ") are the past tense and past participle of the verb To 



'\ are the 
J Pit J i. e. 



Pot J Pit, i. e. To Excavate^ To Sink into a hollow. 

" Deip in the sorowful grisle liellis pot." — Douglas, booke4. p. 108. 

*' First fayre and wele 
Therof much dele 
He dygged it in a pot." Sir T. Morels Worhes. 

Town ^ Notwithstanding their seeming difference, these 
Tun [-three (town, tun, ten) are but one word, with 
Ten J one meaning; viz. Inclosed, Encompassed, Shut in: 
and they only differ (besides their spelling) in their modern 
different application and subaudition. It is the past tense 
and therefore past participle (ton, tone, tun, tyne, tene) of 
the Anglo-Saxon verb Tynan, To Inclose, To Encompass, To 
Tyne. 

F.—To Tyne I 

H. — Nay, I will not warrant that use of the word in modern 
English. "To tyne (Skinner says) adhuc pro Sepire in qui- 
busdam Anglise partibu-s usm'patur : si Verstegano fides sit." 
Whether the word be now so used, I know not, nor shall I give 
myself the trouble to inquire.-^ I think it probable ; but it is 
sufficient for my purpose that this verb was commonly so used 
in that period of our language which we call Anglo-Saxon. 

The modern subaudition, wlien we use the word town, 
is restricted to — any number of houses — Inclosed together. 



^ [" The priest with holy hands was seen to tine 
The cloven wood, and ponr the ruddy wine." 

Drt/de?i's Translation of the First Book of Homer'* s Ilias.' 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 453 

Formerly the English subaudition was more extensive,, and em- 
braced also any inclosure — any quantity of land &c. inclosed} 

" Sotlieli thei dispisiden, and thei wenten awei, another in to his toun, 
for sothe another to his marchaundie." 

" But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his Fai'm, 
another to his merchandise." — Matthew, ch. 23. v. 5. 

" Whiche thing as thei that lese widen hadden sejoi don, thei fledden, 
and telden in to the citee and in tounes." 

" When they that fed them saw what was done, they fled, and went 
and told it in the city and in the Country.^'' — Liike, ch. 8. v. 34. 

"And alle bigimnen togidre to excuse, the firste seide, I haue bougt a 
TOUN, and I haue nede to go out and se yt." 

" And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first 
said unto him, I have bought a Fiece of ground, and I must needs go 
and see itr— Ibid. ch. 14. v. 18. 

" And he wente and cleuide to oon of the burgeys of that cuntre, and 
he sente him in to his toun that he shulde fede hoggis." 

" And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country ; and 
he sent him into his Fields to feed swine." — Ibid. ch. 15. v. 15. 

" And whanne thei ledden him, thei token sum man Symont of Sy- 
renen, comynge fro the toun and thei puttiden to him a cross, to bere 
aftir Ihesu." 

" And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon a Cyre- 
nean, coming out of the Country, and on him they laid the cross, that he 
might bear it after Jesus." — Ibid. ch. 23. v. 26. 

A TUN (cunne) and its diminutive Tunnel (csenel^ tenel) is the 
same participle, with the same meaning ; though now usually 
applied to an inclosure for fluids.^ 



^ [Dr. Beddoes, in a letter to me (H. Tooke) Nov. 25, 1805, says, — 
" Have you not lieard, or did not you choose to mention, that in the 
W. of Cornwall, every cluster of trees is called a town of trees, — first 
no doubt from the inclosure, then simply as a group ? To tyne is still 
a provincialism. To tyne a gap in a liedge, means at present, to fill it 
up." — Extract of a letter to me from Br. Beddoes, Nov. 25, 1805.] 

' [" ToNNA vel TUNNA, vas, ex Germanico et Belgico tonne ; quo 
notatur vas vinarium, reive similis. Auctor vit?e Philiberti : ' Kogans 
eum cellarium ingredi, et vas vinarium, quod tonna dicitur, benedicere.' 
Hinc diminutivum tonnella, vel tunnella, vascidtim. M. loanncs 



454 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

" Certain persons of London brake np the tunne in tlie warde of 
Cornhill, and tooke oute certayne persons that thither were committed 
by Sir Ihon Briton, then custos or gardeyn of the citie." 

Fabian J Edwarde J. p. 142. 

F. — In this derivation of tun, I suppose you know that 
you have only all the etymologists of all the languages of 
Europe against you : for all of them use this word : and they 
seem to agree that it comes from the Latin Tinaj and Tina from 
the Greek Aeivo^. 

H. — Do Aeivo<i or Tina afford us any shadow of a meaning 
to the word tun ? If they do not_, such derivation is at least 
nugatory. But Tina has no connection with this doubtful 
Aeivo<;. Tina is itself from Tynan : as heaps of other Latin 
words, referred to by our etymologists, shall in due time be 
shewn evidently to come from us, and not our words from 
them. 

F. — When different languages have the same word, who shall 
decide which of the two is original ? 

H. — This circumstance — Its meaning — shall decide. The 
word is always sufficiently original for me in that language 
where its meaning, which is the cause of its application, can 
be found. And seeking only meaning, when I have found it, 
there I stop : the rest is a curiosity whose usefulness I cannot 
discover. 



de Thwrocz in chronicis Hungaricis, secundse partis cap. xcvii : * De 
vino expensse sunt centum et octoginta TUNNELLyE.' Imo et virili genere 
TONELLUS dixere : forte ob diminutionera extrita consona, ut a signum, 
sigillum, a mamma, mamilla. Petrus Cellensis, lib. ix. Epist. v. ' Habes 
vinum de vite vera expressum de torculari crucis et attractum aperto 
ostio lateris. Sicut enim tonellus foratur, ut vinum habeatur : sic 
latus Christi lancea militis apertum est, ut exiret aqua baptismatis, et 
sanguis nostras redemptionis.' Tonn/E vel tunn/E vocabulo vicinum est 
TINA : quod legas in Actis Thyrsi et sociorum ad xxviii Jan. * Turn 
Sylvanus jussit impleri tinam aqua, et merso capite ligari pedes ejus 
sursum, et mediam partem corporis, qusB super aqua esset, flagelHs 
csedi.' Imo et Varro usurpat in iv. de L.L. et in 1. de vita populi Ro- 
mani, ut quidem utrobique in Conjectaneis corrigit Scaliger ; qui et apud 
Festum legit tin a ; ubi vulgo, tinia, vasa vinaria. Utcunque hoc, 
plane videntur tonnyE vel tunn.e ct tin.e vcl tini.e, vocabula esse 
cognata, ct ab cadem origine profecta." 

Fossil de Fit. Serm. Hb. 2. cap. 18. p. 100.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 455 

But to proceed in our course. 

However strange it may_, at first mention_, appear to you^ 
TEN (in the Anglo-Saxon^ tyn, tin, cen) is likewise the past 
participle of Tynan. 

You have already seen that the names of Colours have a 
meaning, as a cause of their denomination ; and now you will 
find that the names of Numerals have also a meaning. So 
have the WindSj &c. In fact, all General terms must have a 
meaning, as the cause of their imposition : for there is nothing 
strictly arbitrary in language. 



1 
1 



It is in the highest degree probable that all numeration was \ 
originally performed by the fingers, the actual resort of the \ 
ignorant: for the number of the fingers is still the utmost \ 
extent of numeration. The hands doubled, closed, or shut in, / 
include and conclude all number : and might therefore well be 
denominated tyn or ten. For therein you have closed all 
numeration : ^ and if you want more, must begin again, ten and 
one, ten and two, &c. to Twain-tens : when you again recom- 
mence, Twain-tens and one, &c. 

Knoll ") In the Anglo- Saxon Cnoll, Cnyll, is the past par- 
Knell j ticiple of Enyllan, To strike a bell. 

Choice — was formerly written chose ; and is the past 
participle of Eij'an, eligere. To Chese, as it was formerly 
written. 



^ [Ten — pa TYN beboba. — id est — The ten commandments. 

loj'eph leopobe on ])am lanbe msefihce hunb 'ceonrij gea/ia anb TIN 
ro eacan. — JElfric. de Veteri Testamento. 

8eo o))eji boc yy Exobuj' jehaten. ^e OOoyj'e]- ApRAT be jjara 
miclura racnum anb be jjam TYN pirum ])e pujabon ^a gepjiemobe 
opeji Phajiao. — Ibid.'] 

^ Decern^ Acko, has also been well derived from Aex'^fiai,, comprehendo 
— Trapa to dex^o'Ocii kcu avyKex(>ipr]K(vai ra yev7] iravra tcov api0fjL<ov. — " Sed 
ha3c (says Vossius) allusio verius quam originatio." 

I do not concur with him in this censure. 

[See Juvenal, Sat. 10. And Cselius Ehodiginus, lib. 23. cap. 12. 
et sequ. — To count on the right hand, when the number exceeds a 
hundred.] 



456 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

" Frely paye the tythe neytlier worste ne beste, but as they come to 
honde without chose." — Diues and Pauper, 7th Comm. cap. 13. 

"Now thou might chese 

How thou couetist to cal me, now thou knowst al mi names." 

Fision of F. Floughman, pass. 16. fol. 77. p. 3. 

" Then sayd Pilate to the maysters of the la we : Chese you of the 
moost myghty men amonge you, and let them holde these maces." 

NicJiodemus Gospell, ch. 1. (1511.) 

"I haue sette byfore you lyfe and dethe, good and euyll, blessynge 
and curse, and therfore chese the lyfe." 

Bines and Pauper , 8th Comm. cap. 13. 

Mint "i are the past participle of GQynejian^ ODynjian, 
Money J notare, To Mark, or To Coin. Mineyed, Minyed^ 
Min'dj Mint : and money, merely by changing the character- 
istic Y to o. — The Latin Monet a ^ is the past participle of the 
same Anglo-Saxon verb. 

Thong 'i are the past participle of Dpman, Dpman, decrescere. 
Thin J minni. Thong (in the Anglo-Saxon Dponj, Dpanj) 

was still written thwong, long after our language ceased to be 

called Anglo-Saxon. 

" Torsothe a stronger than I shal come aftir me, whos I am not worth 
to imbynde the thwong of hise shoon." — Luke, ch. 3. v. 16. 

" He it is that is to com;ynge aftir me, whiche is maid bifore me, of 
whom I am not worthi that I unbynde the thwong of his shoo." 

loin, ch. 1. V. 27. 

" He axed of the kynge so myche grounde as the hyde of a bull or 
other beste wolde compace, which the kynge to hym graunted. After 
whiche graunt, the sayde Hengyste to the ende to winne a large grounde, 
causyd the sayd bestes skyn to be cut into a small and slender thong." 
— Fabian, parte 5. ch. 83." 

Thin, as well as thong, appears to have been formerly written 
with a w. 

" And then hee sickned more and more, and dried and dwined away." 

Hist, of Frince Arthur, 3rd part, ch. 175- 



^ Vossius tells us that moneta is from Moneo : " quod idco moneta 
vocatur; quia nota inscripta nionet nos autoris et valoris." 



CH. 



IV.] 



OF ABSTRACTION. 



457 



Sorrow ^ ^^ one word differently spelled^ and in modern 
Sorry English somewhat differently applied; but have 
Sore all one meaning : and, by the change of the cha- 

[Sour] ' racteristic letter y to o, are the past participle 
Shrewd of tlie Anglo-Saxon verb 8yppan^ 8yjiepan, 
Shrew 8ypepian, To Vex, To Molest, To cause mis- 
chief to. 

This participle was written in the Anglo-Saxon, T^VVy Y^W^y 
j'oph, fophj, YO]\i, ppe, pap. And, long after that time, 
in English sorwe, sorewe, soor, &c. And was, and is, the 
general name for any malady or disease, or mischief, or suffer- 
ing; any thing generally by which one is molested, vexed, 
grieved, or mischieved. And whoever attempts to pronounce 
the Anglo-Saxon participle sorw, will not wonder that it should 
have been so variously written.^ 

" And Ihesu enuyrownyde al Gahlee, techynge in the synagogis of 
hem the gospel of the rewme, and heehnge al sorewe, ether ache, and 
sikenesse in the peple. And his fame wente in to al Sirie, and thei 
ofPriden to him alle men hauynge yuel, takun with dyuerse sooris and 
tormentis." 

" And Jesus went about aU Gahlee, teaching in their synagogues, and 
preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sick- 
ness and all manner of diseases among the people. And his fame 
went throughout all Syria ; and they brought unto him aU sick people 
that were taken with divers diseases and torments." 

Mattheto, ch. 4. v. 33, 24. 



* The same change in the written signs has taken place in the modern 
manner of representing similar sounds. 



Arwe 




''Arrow 


Narwe 




Narroio 


Sparwe 




Sjjarrow 


Harwe 




Harrow 


Falioe 




Fallow 


Halwe 
Salwe 


' are become - 


Hallow 
Sallovj 


Walwe 




Wallow 


Yelwe 




Yellow 


Bonce 




Borrow 


Holwe 




Hollow 


Morwe , 




Morrow. 



458 "" OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

" Marye Magdaleyn anoynted the blysful fete of our Lorde Ihesu with 
a precyous oynement. Judas was sorowe therof and grutched." 

J)iue8 and Pauper, 1st Comiu. cap. 53. 

[ '' I am SORROW for thee : 

By thine owne tongue thou art condemn'd." 

me, p. a97. col. 2. 



Malone ignorantly says— "This obvious error of the press 
adds support to Mr. Steevens^s emendation of a passage in Much 
Ado about Nothing^'' — (i. e. Sorry wag.)] 

In the same meaning we say — a sorry taley a sorry case or 
condition, 

[" The heardes out of their foldes were loosed quight. 
And he emongst the rest crept forth in scry plight." 

Faerie Queene, book 3. cant. 10. st. 52. 
" Here in this bottle, sayd the scry mayd, 

I put the tears of my contrition." — Ibid, book 6. cant. 8. st. 24. 
" Her bleeding brest and riven bowels gor'd. 
Was closed up, as it had not beene sor'd." 

Ibid, book 3. cant. 12. st. 38.] 

Junius says — " sore^ A.-S. j-ap. Forte est a acopo^;, cumu- 
lus ; ut proprie olim accepta sit vox de tumore in quern ingens 
purulentse materise copia confluit ac coacervatm*. Rectius 
tamen videri potest desumptum ex yfrcopa, scabies late diffusa et 
alte defixa. Vel a avpeuvj trabere.^' 

Skinner thinks sore is a contraction from the Latin severus. 
And the Latin etymologists give us the satisfaction of informing 
us, that Severus is either satis verus — or secuSj hoc est, juxta 
verum — or semper verus — or cre/37]po<;j venerabilis. 

[" There also those two Pandionian maides. 
Calling on Itis, Itis evermore, 
Whom, wretched boy, they slew with guiltie blades ; 
For whom the Thracian lamenting sore, 
Turn'd to a lap-wing, fowUe them upbraydes. 
And fluttering round about them still does sore." 

Spenser : VirgiVs G?iat.'] 

Shrewd — the past participle of the same verb 8yppan, 
f ypepan ; not by a change of the characteristic letter, but by 
adding ed to the indicative. It is pyppeb, jypepeb ; which, 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 459 

I doubt not, is our modem shrewed, or shrewd. And fyjipe, 
jyjiepe, is our modem shrewe, or shrew : ^ which I believe to 
be the indicative of jyjiepan; and to mean, — one who vexes 
or molests. 

Shrew was formerly applied indifferently to Males as well as 
to Females. 

" The old SHREW Sir Launcelot smote me downe." 

Rist. of Prince Arthur ^ 2d part, eh. 133. 

"Nay, not so, said Sir Tristram, for that knight seemeth a shrew." 

Ibid. oh. 143. 
" Jacob was a good man, Ezau a shrewe." 

IHues and Fauper^ 1st Comm. cap. 20. 

" Be ye siibgettes for Goddes sake, not only to good lordes and weU 
ruled, but also to sheewes and tyrauntes." 

Ibid, 4th Comm, cap. 15. 
" But Vulcanus, of whom I spake. 
He was a shrewe in all his youth." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 88. p. 2. col. 2. 

" As our Saviour sayd by the wicked baily, which though he played 
the false shrewe for his master, prouided yet wilily somwhat for him- 
selfe." — &ir T. More, Confutacion of Tyndale, p. 461. 

Be-shrew thee ! (Be-fypepCj the imperative of Be-pype-pian) 
i. e. Be thou pjTipe^ pypepe_, i. e. vexed — or, May^st thou be 
vexed, molested, mischieved, or grieved, in some manner. 

[" Now much beshrew my manners and my pride." 

Midsummer Nights Breame, p. 180. vol. 2.^ 

Morrow ") Mer. Casaubon says — " Quis ad Graecorum ver- 
MoRN V borum sonos aures habet vel tantillum imbutas. 
Morning^ qui, cum audit solemne illud in omnium ore — 



^ By a similar easy corruption of y to h, Syrop becomes Shrop, Shrup^ 
Shrub. 

^ [Mr. Steevens says — " This word, of which the etymology is not 
exactly known, impUes a sinister wish, and means the same as if she had 
said — Now ill befall my manners &c." Toilet says — " See Minshew's 
etymology of it, which seems to be an imprecation or wish of such evil 
to one, as the venomous biting of the shrew mouse." 

See also S. Johnson's nonsense.] 



460 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Good-morrow — non Grsecos audire se putet — ^yaOrjv rj/jbepav— 
dicentes ? '' 

Junius says — "EgoA.-S. maejiijen olim suspicabar desump- 
tum ex ODap anb COseppe, amplius. Quoniam dies crastinus 
nihil est aliud quam spatium vitse ulterius adhuc^ eoque lucro 
apponendum.^^ 

Skinner's good sense does not attempt any explanation. 

If we cannot believe with Casaubon (and I think we cannot) 
that Good morrow is merely the Greek ayaOrjv r)fj.6pav ; or with 
Junius^ that it means a Day more ; you will perhaps be in- 
duced to examine the equivalent words of other languages ; in 
hopes of receiving some assistance, hints at leasts from the 
manner in which the equivalent words of other languages are 
explained by their etymologists. You may be tempted per- 
haps to inquire after the Greek avpLov, the Latin Cras, or the 
Italian and French Dimane and Demain. But spare yourself 
the trouble. From the numerous labourers in those vineyards, 
instead of the grapes you look for, you will gather nothing but 
thorns. 

Let us then trace backward the use of the word in our own 
language ; and try whether we cannot find at home the mean- 
ing of this common, useful, and almost necessary word ; which 
our ancestors surely could not have waited for, till the Greeks, 
or some other nation, were pleased to furnish them with it. 

*' Shorten my dayes thou canst with sudden sorow 
And plucke nights from me ; but not lend a morrow." 

Mickard 2d. fol. 27. 

" They sped theym to a place or towne called Antoygnye and there 
lodged that nyghte, and uppon the morowe tooke their journey toward 
Normandy." — Fabian's Chronicle, p. 253, 254. 

" Bight so in the morning, afore day, he mette with his man and his 
horse. And so king Arthur rode but a soft pace till it was day." 

Hist, of Prince Arthur, 1st part, ch. 21. 

" Well, said Queene Gueneuer, ye may depart when ye will. So early 
on the MORROW, or it was day, she tooke her horse." — Ibid. ch. 73. 

" This night abide and washe your feete ; 
And, or the day begin. 
You shall rise earely in the morne 

And so departe againe."-— Gewesw, ch. 19. fol. 37. p. 1. 



CH. IT.] Of ABSTRACTION. 461 

" Then Abraham rose early up 

In MORNE before the sunne." — Genesis, ch. 22. fol. 45. p. 2. 

" Woo be to you that thynke unproJBPytable thynge, and werke wycked 
thynge in your beddes in the morowe whan ye may not slepe." 

Biues and Fawper, 9th Comm. cap, 1. 

" The nyght is passed, lo the morowe graye, 
The fresshe Aurora so fayre in apparence 
Her lyght Dawith, to voyde all offence 
Of wynter nyghtes." Lyfe of our Lady, p. 7. 

" Lorde, in relese of our wo 
In hygh heuenes thy mercy make enclyne 
And downe discende, and let thy grace shyne 
Upon us wretches in the vale of sorowe, 
And Lorde, do Bawe thy holy glade morowe." — Ibid. p. 120. 

" And anoon in the morewende the heigeste preistis makinge coun- 
seil, kiir—Mark, ch. 15. v. 1. 

" In that nigt thei token no thyng. forsothe the morewn maad, 
Ihesu stood in the brynk." — loJm, ch. 21. v. 3, 4. 

" Thei leiden hondis in to hem, and puttiden hem to kepyng til in to 
the morewe, sotheli it was now euen." — Bedis, ch. 4. v. 3. 

" He expownede witnessynge the kyngdom of God, fro the morewe 
til to euentide."— /5i^. ch. 28. v. 23. " 

From morrow, morn and morning, we have traced the 
words back as far as we can go in what is called English, to 
MoreWj Morewn, and Morewende. In the next stage back- 
ward of the same language, called Anglo-Saxon, they were 
written QCepien, OCejijen^ OCepne ; or GOajijene, OOajine ; 
or GOojip, OQopjen, OQojan. And I believe them to be the 
past tense and past participle of the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon 
verb MGK9Ai^, ClQepjian, ODijipan, GOyjijian^ To Dissi- 
pate, To Disperse, To spread abroad, To Scatter. 

The regular past tense of GOyppan (by the accustomed 
change of y to o) is morr ; which (in order to express the 
latter r) might well be pronounced and written Morew, as we 
have seen it was ; and afterwards Morowe and morrow. By 
adding the participial termination en to the past tense, we 
have GCep^en, GCepien, CCep'n ; GOapjen, OOap'n ; GOop- 
^en, COopn ; or Morewen, Morew^n, Mor^n : according to the 



462 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

accustomed contraction of all other participles in our lan- 
guage.^ 

Morrow therefore, and morn (the former being the past 
tense of OQyjijian, without the participial termination en ; and 
the latter being the same past tense, with the addition of the 
participial termination en) have both the same meaning, viz. 
Dissipated, Dispersed, And whenever either of those words 
is used by us, Clouds or Darkness are subuud. Whose disper- 
sion ^ (or the time when they are dispersed) it expresses. 

" Dileguate intorno s'eran le nubi.^^ — It was the morrow or 
the MORN. 

Darkness was antiently supposed to be something positive; 

and therefore in the first chapter of Genesis we are told 

" peoftjiu paejaon opeji J^aejie nipelni/'j-e bjaabnij-j-e. Dob 
cpae^ J>a. Irepeop^e leoht. anb he tobaelbe ^at leohr 
pjiam ]?am ]?eoftjium. anb haet J?at leoht baej. anb |>a 
j^eoj^pa niht. j?a yd^y jepopben sepen anb mopjen an 
bae^.- 

" Darkness was upon the face of the deep. God said, Let there be 
light. And God divided the light from the darkness. And God called 
the hght, day ; and the darkness he called night. The evening and the 
morning (COojrgen) was the first day." 

COyjijienbe is the regular present participle of OOyjijian; 
for which we had formerly Morewende, The present partici- 
pial termination ende is, in modern English, always converted 
to ing. Hence Morewing, Morwing (and by an easy corrup- 
tion) MORNING. 

Pond "^ 

Pound | 

Pen YTo Pin or To Pen, is a common English verb. 

Pin I 

BiNN J 



^ [So the Latin cras may be from Kepai^o), dissipo.] 
2 [ » and if the night 

Have gather'd aught of evil or conceal'd, 

Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark ! " — Milton^ P. L. b. 5. 

■ *' the cock, with lively din, 

Scatters the rear of darkness thin." VAlUgro, — Ed.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION, 463 

" And made Peace porter to pinne the gates." 

Vision of P. Floughman, pass. 21. fol. 116. p. 1. 

" Pent up in Utica." Cato, 

" Hearke, our drummes 

Are bringing forth our youth : wee'l breake our walles 

Eather than they shall pound us up : our gates 

Which yet seeme shut, we haue but pin'd with rushes, 

They '11 open of themselues." Coriolanus, p. 5. 

[ " thou hast a sweet life, mariner, to be pind in a few boords, and 
to be within an inch of a thing bottomlesse." 

Galathea, {by John Lily,) act. 1. sc. 4.] 

This modern English verb To Pin or To Pen is the Anglo- 
Saxon verb Pynban, includere; whose past participle is pond, 
pound, penn, pin, bin; and the old Latin benna, a close 
carriage. 

Skinner says — " Pond Minsh. dictum putat quasi bond, 
quoniam ibi ligata est (i. e. stagnat) aqua. Doct. Th. H. ob- 
servat antiquis dictum esse pand, q. d. patella." He adds, 
^'MaUem deflectere ab A.-S. Pynban, includere : tum quia 
in eo pisces, tanquam in carcere, includuntur; tum quia 
vivarium agro vel horto includitur." Skinner is perfectly right 
in his derivation ; and would have expressed himself more po- 
sitively than mallem, if he had been aware of that change of 
the characteristic letter of the verb, which runs throughout our 
whole language : nor would he have needed to use the vague 
and general word Deflecterej when he might have shewn what 
part of the verb it was. 

Lye concurs with Skinner — " Pond, stagnum, idem credo 
habere etymon ac pound. In hoc differunt, quod alterum 
bestias terrenas, alterum aquaticas includit." 

Dotard ") I believe to be doder'd (i. e. Befooled) , the 
Dotterel J regular past participle of Dybepian, Dybjiian, 
illudere, To Delude} Dotterel is its diminutive. 



* [Skinner says — " To dorr, confundere, obstupefacere ; a Teut. Thor, 
stultus. q. d. stupidum vel stultum facere. Alludit Lat. terreo et Gr. 
T(Lpai\ sed proculdubio verius etymon est a nostro Dorr, A.-S. Dojia, 
fucus ; q. d. fucum, i. e. ignavura et aculei expertem reddere. Vir rev. de- 
fleclit a verbo To Dare, q. d. minaciter provocare." 



464 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

[ " And if some old Dotterell trees, witli standing over nie them." 

B. Ascharriy p. 318.] 
*' The Dotterel, which we think a very dainty dish, 
Whose taking makes such sport, as man no more can wish; 
For as you creep, or cowr, or lie, or stoop, or go, 
So marking you with care the apish bird doth do, 
■ And acting every thing, doth never mark the net. 
Tin he be in the snare, which men for him have set." 

Poly-olbion, song 25. 

This Dotterel-C2itc\img (except treacherously shedding the 
blood of his most virtuous subjects) was the favourite diversion 
of Charles the second. 

Bow ^ This word (for it is but one word differently 
Bough /spelled) whether applied to the inclination of the 
Bay C body in reverence ; or to an engine of war ; or an 
Buxom J instrument of music; or a particular kind of knot ; 
or the curved part of a saddle, or of a ship ; or to the Arc-en-ciel ; 
or to bended legs ; or to the branches of trees ; or to any recess 
of the sea shore ; or in buildings, in barns or windows ; always 
means one and the same thing : viz. Bended or Curved : and 
is the past tense and therefore past participle of the Anglo- 
Saxon verb Byjan, flectere, incurvare. It will not at all 
surprize you, that this w^ord should now appear amongst us so 
differently written as bow, bough and bay ; when you consider 
that in the Anglo-Saxon, the past tense of Byjan was written 
Bojh, Buj, and Beah. 

" I se it by ensample in sommer time on trees. 
There some bowes bene leued, and some here none." 

Vision of P. Ploughman i fol. 78. p. 2. 
" The tabernacles were made of the fayrest braunches and bowes that 
myght be founde." — Diues and Pauper^ 3d Comm. cap. 4. 



"It is our purpose, Crites, to correct 
And punish, with our laughter, this night's sport ; 
Which our court dors so heartily intend." 

Ben Jomon, Ct/ntJda's Revels, act 5. sc. 1. 
" Do it, on psene of the dor. 

Why, what is 't, say you ? 
Lo, you have given yourself the dor. But I will remonstrate to you 
tlie third dor ; which is not, as the two former dors, indicative ; but 
deliberative." — Ibid, act 5. sc. 2.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 465 

" God badde the cliildern of Israeli take braunches and botves of 
paline trees." — Blues and Pauper, 3d Comm. cap. 18. 

" All tbey bowed awaye from goddes la we." 

Ibid. 4th Comm. cap. 13. 

" In tyme of tempest the bowes of the tree bete themself togydre and 
all to breste and fall downe." — Ibid. cap. 27. 

[" As in thicke forrests heard are soft whistlings, 

When through the bowes the wind breathes calmly out." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, Translated by B. C. Esq. 
1594. p. 101. cant. 3. st. 6. 

'' "Whereat the prince, full wrath, his strong right hand 
In full avengement heaved up on hie, 
And stroke the pagan with his steely brand 
So sore, that to his saddle-bow thereby 
He BOWED low." — Faerie Queene, book 4. cant. 8. st. 43.] 

" He lept out at a bay window euen ouer the head where king 
Marke sate playing at the chesse." 

Hist, of Prince Arthur, 2d part, ch. 58. 

" They stoode talking at a bay window of that castle." 

Ibid. ch. 68. 

" They led la beale Isond where shee should stand, and behould all 
the iusts in a bay window." — Ibid. ch. 154. 

*' Queene Gueneuer was in a bay window waiting with her ladies, 
and espied an armed knight." — Ibid. 3d part, ch. 132. 

" These ceremonies that partly supersticion, partly auaryce, partly 
tyranny, hath brought into the church ar to be eschuyed, as the sayng of 
priuat masses, blessing of water, bowgh bread." 

Declaracion of Christe, By lohan Roper , cap. 11. 

" Or with earth 

By nature made to till, that by the yearly birth 
The large-BAY'D bam doth fill." — Poly-olbion, song 3. 
" Adorn'd with many harb'rous bays." — Ibid, song 23. 
[" If this law hold in Vienna ten yeare, ile rent the fairest in it, after 
three pence a bay."^ — Measure for Measure, p. G6. col. 2.] 



* [To which S. Johnson gives the following note : 

** A BAY of building is, in many parts of England, a common term ; 
of which the best conception that 1 could ever attain, is, that it is the 
space between tlie main beams of the roof; so that a barn crossed twice 
with a beam, is a barn of three bays."] 

2 H 



466 ' OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II, 

Buxom, in the Anglo-Saxon Boj-fum, Boc-j'um, Buh-j-um ; 
in old English Bough-some, i. e. easily Bended or Bowed to 
one's will, or obedient. 

" Yf ther were ony unbuxom childe that wold not obeye to his fader 
and moder &c. God badde that all the people of the cyte or of that 
towne sholde slee that unbuxom childe with stones in example of all 
other." — I>lue8 and Pauper, 4th Comm. cap. 2. 

" I praye you all that ye be buxum and meke to fader and moder." 

Ibid. cap. 10. 

[" Hee did treade do\\Tie and disgrace all the English, and set up and 
countenance the Irish all that hee could, whether thinking thereby to 
make them more tractable and buxome to his government." 

Spenser s View of the State of Ireland. 
Todd's edit. 1805. p. 437. 

" But they had be better come at their call ; 
For many han unto mischiefe fall, 
And bene of ravenous wolves yrent. 
All for they nould be buxome and Bent''' 

ShepJieard's Calendar, September. 
" So wilde a beast so tame ytaught to bee, 
And buxome to his bands, is ioy to see." 

Spenser, Mother Hiibberd's Tale. 
" The crew with merry shouts their anchors weigh, 
Then ply their oars, and brush the buxom sea." 

Dryden, Cymon and Iphiyenia.'] 



Stock 
Stocks 
Stocking 
Stuck 



All these (viz. j^toc, j'tac, j'Cicce; stok, 
STOK-EN, stuk, stak, stik, stich) SO Va- 
riously written, and with such apparently 
different meanings, are merely the same past 



Stucco }> tense and past participle (differently spelled. 

Stake pronounced, and applied,) of the Anglo-Saxon 

Steak verb Scican, j'Cician, To Stick, pungcre, figere : 

Stick although our modern fashion acknowledges 

Stitch J only stuck as the past tense and past par- 

ticiple of the verb To Stick, and considers all the others as so 
many distinct and unconnected substantives. 

We have in modern use (considered as words of different 
meaning) 

Stock — Truncus, stipes, i. e. Stuck : as Log and Post and 
Block, before explained. — '' To stand like a stock." 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 467 

Stock — metaph. A stupid or blockish person. 
Stock — of a tree, itself Stuck in the ground, from which 
branches proceed. 

Stock — metaph. Stirps, family, race. 

" Ony man born of the stoke of Adam." 

Beclaracion of Christe^ By lohan Hoper^ cap. 7. 

Stock — Fixed quantity or store of any thing. 
Stock — in trade : fixed sum of money, or goods, capital, 
fund. 

Stock — Lock ; not affixed, but stuck in. 

" The charabre dore anone was stoke 
Er thei haue ought unto hir spoke." 

Gower, lib. 7. fol. 171. p. 1. col. 2. 

Stock — of a gun ; that in which the barrel is fixed, or stuck. 

Stock — Handle ; that in which any tool or instrument is 
fixed. 

Stock — Article of dress for the neck or legs. (See stock- 
ing.) 

Stocks — A place of punishment ; in which the hands and 
legs are stuck ov fixed. 

" There to abyde stocked in pryson." Lyfe of our Lady, p. 35. 

Stocks — in which ships are stuck oy fixed. 

Stocks — The public Funds ; where the money of [unhappy] 
persons is now fixed. — [Thence never to return.] 

Stocking — for the leg : corruptly written for stocken, (i. e. 
Stokj with the addition of the participial termination en) because 
it was Stuck or made with sticking pins, (now called knitting 
needles.) 

Stucco — for houses, &c. A composition stuck or fixed upon 
walls &c. 

Stake — in a hedge ; Stak or Stuck there. 

[" Whose voice so soone as he did undertake, 
Eftsoones he stood as still as any stake." 

Faerie Queene, book 5. cant. 3. st. 39.] 

Stake — to which beasts are fastened to be baited — i. c. any 
thing stuck or fixed in the ground for that purpose. 

Stake — A Deposit ; paid down ox fixed to answer tlic event. 

2 H 2 



468 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Stake — metaph. Risque ; any thing fixed or engaged to 
answer an event. 

Steak — a piece or portion of flesh so small as that it may 
be taken up and carried, stuck upon a fork, or any slender 
sticking instrument. Hence, I believe, the German and Dutch 
Stuck, Stuk,. to have been transferred to mean any small piece 
of any thing. 

Stick — (formerly written stoc) carried in the hand or other- 
wise ; but sufficiently slender to be Stuck or thrust into the 
ground or other soft substance. 

Stick — A thrust. 

Stitch — in needle work (pronounced ch instead of ck) a 
thrust or push with a needle : also that which is performed by 
a thrust or push of a needle. 

Stitch — metaph. A pain, resembling the sensation pro- 
duced by being stuck or pierced by any pointed instrument. 

The abovementioned are the common uses to which this 
participle is applied in modern discourse; but formerly (and 
not long since) were used 

Stock — for the leg ; instead of stocken [Stocking.) 

Stock — A sword or rapier, or any weapon that might be 
thrust or stuck. 

Stock — A thrust or push. 

Stuck — A thrust or push. 

The abovementioned modern uses of this participle stand not 
in need of any instances or further explanation. For the 
obsolete use of it, a very few will be sufficient. 



I. Item, she can knit. 
" Lannce. What neede a man care for a stock with a wench, when 
she can knit him a stocke? " — Two Genilenien of Verona, p. 31. 

" I did thinke by the excellent constitntion of thy legge, it was form'd 
under the starre of a galliard. ♦ 

" I, 'tis strong ; and it does indifferent well in a dam'd colour'd 
stocke." — Twelfe Night, p. 257. 

" Which our plain fathers erst would have accounted sin, 
Before the costly coach and silken stock came in.'" 

Foly-olbion, song 16. 

" To sec thee fight, to see thee foignc, to sec tlice traucrse, to see 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 469 

thee heere, to see thee there, to see thee passe thy pimcto, thy stock, 
thy reuerse, thy distance, thy montant." 

Merry Wities of Windsor, p. 47. 
" I hadde a passe with him, rapier, scabberd, and all : and he giues 
me the stucke in with such a mortall motion, that it is ineuitable." 

Twelfe Night, p. 269. 
*' When in your motion you are hot and dry. 
And that he calls for drinke ', He haue prepar'd him 
A challice for the nonce ; whereon but sipping. 
If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck, 

Our purpose may hold there." Hamlet, p. 276. 

" The fere afFrayit my mind astonit als, 
Upstert my hare, the word stake in my hals." 

Douglas, booke 3. p. 68. 
Though I have no doubt of my explanation of stucco; 
yet, standing alone, I ought to give you Menage^s account 
of it. He says, that the French du Stuc, is from the Italian 
Stucco ; and Stucco — '' forse dal Tedesco Stuk, che vale Fram- 
mento : essendo composto lo Stucco di frammenti di marmo. — 
H S' Ferrari da Stipare'^ 

The Italian stocco and stoccata and the French estoc are 
the same participle. 

F. — Before you quit this word, I wish to know what you will 
do with Dryden's Stitch-faWn cheek ? 

[" Mistaken blessing which old age they call, 
'Tis a long, nasty, darksome hospital ; 
A ropy chain of rheums, a visage rough ; 

Deform'd, unfeatur'd, and a skin of buff; [jaw ; — 

A stitch-faln cheek, {pendetitesque genas) that hangs below the 
Such wrinkles, as a skilful hand would draw 
For an old grandam ape, when, with a grace. 
She sits at squat, and scrubs her leathern face." 

Drydeus Translat. of the Tenth Sat. of Juvenal.l 

Johnson says — "that perhaps it means furrows or ridges,'^ 
and that " otherwise he does not understand it." 

H. — The woman who knitted his stockings could have told 
him, and explained the figure by her own mishap. 

Dry ^ These words, though differently spelled, and differ- 
Drone [-ently applied, arc the same past tense and past 
Drain ) participle of the Anglo- Saxon verb Djiyjan, excutcre, 
expellere, and therefore siccare. 



470 



OF ABSTRACTION. 



[part II. 



Dry_, siccus^ in the Anglo-Saxon Djiyj, is manifestly the past 
tense of Djiyjan^ used participially. 

Drone, excussus, expulsus {subaud. bee)_, is written in the 
Anglo-Saxon Dpan, Dpane, Dpsen. Dpaj (y in Dpyjan being 
changed into a broad) is the regular past tense of Dpyjan : 
by adding to it the participial termination en_, we have Dpajen, 
Dpaj^n, Dp an (the a broad) pronounced, by us in the South, 

DRONE. 

Drain is evidently the same participle differently pronounced, 
as Dpsen : being applied to that by which any fluid (or other 
thing) is excussum or expulsum. 

Rogue 

Rock 

Roche 

Rochet 

Rocket 

Rug 

Ruck 

Array 

Rail 

Rails 

Rig 

Rigging 

Rigel 

Rilling 

Ray 



All these are the past participle of the Anglo- 
Saxon verb ppijan, tegere. To Wrine, To Wrie^ 
To cover, To cloak. 

To Wrine, or To Wrie was formerly a common 
English verb. 



^ [*• EoGUE, vulgari usu profligatissimus nebiilo, trifurcifer, TpifiaaTiyias, 
trico, scehis ; in legibus nostris, erro, mendicus. Sunt qui deflectunt 
a Fr. G. Ro(/ue, arrogans, impudens, q. d. A bold or sturdy beggar. 
Doct. Th. H. declinat a Fr. G. Roder, vagari. Non incommode etiam 
deduci posset a rocjando ; quia stipem covrogat : Rogator autem pro 
mendico apud Martialem reperitur, lib. 4. Epigv. 30. Et Roga in 
Grseco-Romano imperio pro donativo vel eleemosyna, prresertini ab 
imperatorc collata, usurpata est olim apud Codinum et alios passim 
Orientalis imperii scriptores. Minsk, declinat ab A.-S. Roajli, malig- 
nari, et Germ, Roggen, nebulonem agere : sed lia3 voces nusquam 
gentium comparent. Melius a Gr. '?aKos et lleb. liong, raalus. Potest 
et formari a Belg. Wroeghen. A.-S. ppegan, accusare, deferre, prodere." 
— SJdtuipr. 

Junius says — " Erro, scurra, vagus. Gniecis puKos est homo nihili," &c. 

S. Johnson, in a note to T/ie Merry Wives of IVmdsor, says: "A 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 471 

" The goode folke that Poule to preched 
Profred hym ofte, whan he hem teched, 
Some of her good in charite, 
But ther of ryght nothyng toke he, 
But of hys honde wolde he gette 
Clothes to WRINE hym and hys mete." 

Bom. of the Rose, fol. 152. p. 1. col. 1. 
" 1 haue wel leuer, sothe to say. 
Before the people patter and pray. 
And WRYE me in my foxerye 

Under a cope of papelardye." Ibid. p. 2. col. 1. 

*' And aye of loues seruauntes euery whyle 
Himselfe to wuye, at hem he gan to smyle." 

Ibid. fol. 159. p. 1. col. 1. 
" For who so lyste haue healyng of his leche 
To him byhoueth fyrst unwrie hys wounde." 

Ibid. fol. 161. p. 2. col. 2. 
" And WRIE you in that mantel euermo." 

TroylMs, boke 2. fol. 165. p. 1. col. 1. 
" But O fortune, executrice of Wyerdes, 
influences of heuens hye, 
Soth is, that under God ye ben our hierdes. 
Though to us beestes ben the causes wrie." 

Ibid, boke 3. fol. 175. p. 2. col. 2. 

" Up embossed hygh 

State Dido al in golde and perrey wrigh.'* 

Dido, fol. 212. p. 2. col. 2. 
" Wrie the glede, and hotter is the fyre, 
Forbyd a loue, and it is ten tymes so wode." 

Tysbe, fol. 210. p. 2. col. 1. 
The disuse of this verb ppijan, To Wrine, or To Wrie, has, 
I believe, caused the darkness and difficulty of all our etymo- 
logists concerning the branches of this word which are left in 
our language.^ And yet_, I think, this should not have hap- 



ROGUE is a wanderer, or vagabond ; and, in its consequential significatiou, 

a cheat." — Malone's Edition, vol. 1. part 2. p. 226. 

In his Dictionary he says — " Bogue, of uncertain etymology."] 

^ [" Ford. He Prat her : out of my doore, you witch, you ragge, 

you baggage, you poul-cat, you runuion, out, out : lie conjure you. He 

fortune-tell you." 

Merry TTioes of Windnor, {First Folio,) p. 55. act. 4. sc. 2. 
See in Malone's edition the note on the same passage.] 



473 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART IT. 

pened to them : for tlie verb ppi^an is not so intirely lost to 
the language^ but that it has still left behind it the verb To 
Rig, with the same meaning. Which Johnson (with his wonted 
sagacity) derives from Ridge, the back. Because,, forsooth, — 
" Cloaths are proverbially said to be for the back, and victuals 
for the belly.'' 

EoGUE (according to the usual change of the characteristic i) 
is the past tense and therefore past participle of Ppijan, and 
means Covered, Cloaked ; most aptly applied to the character 
designated by that term. 

It happens to this verb, as to the others, that the change 
of the characteristic i was not only to o, but also to a. What 
we call ROGUE, Douglas therefore calls ray (5 being softened 

to Y.) 

*' Thir Romanis ar hot ridlis, quod I to that ray, 
Lede, lere me ane uthir lessoun, this I ne like." 

Douglas, Prol. of the 8th booke, fol. 239. p. 2. 

Upon this passage, the Glossarist to Douglas says — "ray 
seems to signify some name of reproach, as Rogue, Knave, or 
such like : Or perhaps it may be taken for a Rymer or poet- 
aster, and so allied to the word Ray in Chaucer exp. Songs, 
Roundels: Or lastly, perhaps it may denote a wild or rude 
fellow, from the A.-S. Reoh, asper, whence Skinner derives 
the old English word Ray, mentioned in some of their statutes, 
explained by Cowel Cloth never dyed : or from the S. Rea (for 
Hoe) as we commonly say, as wild as a Rea. But after all I am 
not satisfied.'' 

The same word, with the same meaning, is also used in Pierce 
Ploughman. 

" To Wy and to Wyrichester I weiite to the fayre, 
With mani maner merchandise as mi master me hight, 
Ne had the grace of Gyle igoo'anioiigest my chaffer, 
It had bene unsolde thys seuen yere, so me God helpe ; 
Than draue I me among drapers, my donct to lerne. 
To drawe the lyser a longe the lenger it semed ; 
Amonge tlie riche uayes I rendred a lesson, 
To broche them with a packnedle and plitte hem togithers. 
And pnt licm in a prcssc and pynned them therin, 
Til ten yard(;s or twelue had tolkul owte xiii." 

Vis. of P. PloiigJfUKui, Ibl. 23. p. 2. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 473 

A ROCK (k iustead of g) is the covered part of the machine 
which spinsters use ; I mean covered by the wool to be spun. 
It was formerly well written rok_, c before k being always 
superfluous. 

" As sclie that has nane uthir rent nor hyre, 
Bot wyth hyr rok and spynnyng for to thryffe, 
And therwyth to sustene her empty lyffe." 

Douglas^ booke 8. p, 256. 
[" The wyfe came yet 
And with her fete 
She holpe to kepe him downe, 
And with her rocke 
Many a knocke 
She gaue hym on the crowne." Sir T. Mores WorJces, p. 4. 

" Sad Clotho held the eocke, the whiles the tlirid 
By griesly Lachesis was spun with paine." 

Faerie Queene, booke 4. cant. 2. st. 48.] 

Rocket or rochet, part of the dress of a bishop_, and formerly 
of women, is the diminutive of the Anglo-Saxon poc, exterior 
vestis (the same participle), or that with which a person is 
covered. 

" For there nys no clothe sytteth bette 

On (lamosel, than doth rokette. 

A woman wel more fetyse is 

In rokette, than in cote ywis : 

The white rokette ryddeled fay re 

Betokeneth that ful debonayre 

And swete was she that it bere." 

Eovi. of the Rose, fol. 125. p. 2. coL 2. 
*' For al so wel wol loue be sette 

Under ragges as ryche rochette." Ibid. fol. 142. p. 2. col. 2. 

Rug, in the Anglo-Saxon Rooc, indumentum, is also the 
same past participle of ppijan; the characteristic i, as usual, 
being changed also to oo and u. 

" Horror assumes her seat, from whose abiding flies 
Thick vapours, that like rugs still hang the troubled air." 

Foly-olbio7i, song 26. 

Ruck also (a very common English word, especially amongst 
females, though I find it not in any English collection) is the 
same participle as pooc, and means covered. It is commonly 



474 OP ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

used when some part of silk, linen_, &c. is folded over, or covers 
some other part, when the whole should lye smooth or even. 

"We may notice in passing, that the old English words To 
Rouk and To Ruck, are likewise formed from the past tense of 
ppijan ; and mean, not (as Junius supposes) to lye quiet or in 
ambush, but simply to lye covered. 

" What is mankynde more unto you yholde 
Than is the shepe that rouketh in the folde ? " 

KnygMe8 Tale, fol. 3. p. 1. col, 2. 
" Now ryse, my dere brother Troylus, 
For certes it non honour is to the 
To wepe, and in thy bed to rouken thus." 

Troylus, boke 5. fol. 193. p. 2. col. 2. 
" Waytyng his tyme on Chaunticlere to fall. 
As gladly done these homicides all, 
That in a wayte lye to murdre men, 
O false murdrer, ruckyng in thy den." 

Tale of Nonnes Rriest, fol. 90. p. 1. col. 1. 

We have seen ray (the past tense of ppijau) used by Douglas 
for ROGUE. It is likewise used with the same propriety for 

ARRAY. 

*' The thirde the kynge of nacions was 
And Tidnall was his name, 
These foure did marche in battel raye 

By armes to trye the same." Genesis, ch. 14. fol. 25. p. 2. 

" And such as yet were left behinde 
Made speede to scape awaie : 
And to the mountaynes iiedde for Hfe 

Eorgettinge battel rate." Ibid. ch. 14. fol. 26. p. 2. 

[" Like as a ship, whom cruell tempest drives 

Upon a rocke with horrible dismay, 

Her shattered ribs in thousand peeces rives. 

And spoyling all her geares and goodly ray. 

Does make herselfe misfortunes piteous pray." 

Faerie Qiieene, book 5. cant. 2. st. 50. 
" I heard a voyce that called farre away, 

And her awaking bad her quickly dight, 

Por lo ! her bridegrome was in readie ray, 

To come to her ; and sceke her loves delight." 

Spenser, Raines of Time.] 



CH.. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 475 

By the addition of the participial termination ed to ray or 
RAiEj we have rayed_, raied^ or raide. 

" What one art thou, thus in tome weed iclad ? 
Yertue. In price whom auncient sages had. 
Why poorely raide?" — (i. e. poorly rigged.) 

Songes, ^"c. By the Eaiie of Surrey, 8fc. fol. 107. p. 1. 

Array is the same past tense_, with a the usual prefix to 
the prseterit of the Anglo-Saxon verbs ; and means Covered, 
Dressed: and is applied by us both to the dressing of the 
body of an individual, and to the dressing of a body of armed 
men. 

Arayxe is the foresaid past tense aray with the addition of 
the participial termination en : Arayen, Aray'n, clothed, dressed, 
covered. 

" Eftir thame mydlit samin went arayne 
The uthir Troyanis and folkis Italiane." 

Douglas, booke 13. p. 470. 

A woman^s Night-nAiLj in the Anglo-Saxon Rsejel, is the 
diminutive of Rsej or ray, the past tense of ppijan. 

As rochet so rail means thinly or slenderly covered. And 
we have not this word from the Latin Ralla or Regilla, to which 
our etymologists refer us, without obtaining any meaning by 
their reference ; but Ralla and Regilla are themselves from our 
northern psejel : nor is there found for them any other rational 
reference. 

Rails, by which any area, court-yard, or other place is thinly 
(i. e. not closely, but with small intervals) covered, is the same 
word piejel. 

" Furth of the sey with this the clawing springis, 
As Phebus rais, fast to the yettis thr'mgis 
The cJiois gallandis, and huntraen thaym besyde, 
With kalis and with nettis Strang and wyde, 
And hunting speris stif with hedis brade." 

Douglas, booke 4. p. 104. 

" The bustuous swyne 

Quhen that he is betrappit fra hys feris 

Aniyd the hunting ralis and the nettys." — Ibid, booke 10. p. 344. 



476 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

Of the same meaning and family is the word rilling (for 
Rillen, as railing for railenJ for that with which the feet are 
covered. 

" Thare left fute and al tliare leg was bare, 
Ane rouch rilling of raw hyde and of hare 
The tothir fute couerit wele and knyt." — I)ou^Ias,hooke 7. p. 238. 

A RiG^ rigeLj rigil_, or RiGsiE, is a male (horse or other 
animal) who has escaped with a partial castration, because some 
portion of his testicle was coveredj and so hidden from the 
operator's view. 

Rigging (written, I suppose, corruptly for riggen, i. e. 
ppijjen) is that with which a ship, or anything else, is rigged 
(i. e. PpiJ^eb) or covered. 

I fear I have detained you too long upon this verb ppijan. 
And, for our present purpose, it is not necessary to shew you 
what I think of a rock in the sea ; ^ or of a sky-ROCKET ; or of 
raiment, arraiment. To Rail and To Rally ; the real meaning 
of all which, I believe, the etymologist will find nowhere but in 
ppjan. 

Dross — is the past participle of cXJCHISANj Djieopan, 
dejicere, prsecipitare. 

TT ) Hoard, Jl/VflK^? J^oj^^^ is the participle of 

TT f J^ynban, custodire. 

Hurdle j ''^ 

Herd is the same participle; and is applied both to that 
which is guarded or kept, and to him by whom it is guarded or 
kept. We use it both for Grex and Pastor. 

Hurdle, ]^ypbel, is the diminutive of the same participle 
)^ypb : for (as usual with the change of the characteristic letter) 
the past tense of J^yjiban was written either )^opb, J^ypb, or 
)>epb. 



^ [ " With rich treasures this gay ship fraighted was ; 
But sudden storrae did so tunnoyle the aire, 
And tumbled up the sea, that she (alas) 
Strake on a rock, that under water lay." 

Spenser, Visions of Petrarch. 1 



CH. IV.] 



OF ABSTRACTION. 



477 



Skill 

Scale 

Scald 

Shale 

Shell 

Shoal ^ 

Scowl 

Scull 

Shoulder 

Shilling 

Slate 

Scala 

SCAGLIA 

Eschelle 
Escaille 
Eschalotte 
scalogna. 



At first sights these words may seem to 
have nothing in common with each other; 
little at least in the sound, less in the mean- 
ing. Yet are they all the past participle of 
the Anglo-Saxon verb 8cylan, To Divide y 
To Separate, To make a difference, To 
Discern, To Skill: and have all one common 
meaning. 

This English verb_, To Skill, though now 
obsolete, has not been long lost to the lan- 
guage ; but continued in good and common 
use down to the reign of Charles the First. 



*' Shall she worke stories or poetries ? 
It SKILLETH not which." JEndimion, {by John Lily,) act 3. so. 1. 

[" We shall either beg together, or hang together. 
It SKiLS not so we be together." 

Galathea, By John Lily, act 1. sc. 4.] 

" And now we three have spoke it, 
It SKILLS not greatly who impugnes our doome." 

Henry FL. part 2. p. 132. 

" It 's no matter, give him what thou hast ; though it lack a shilling 
or two, it SKILLS not." — B. Jonson, Poetastei', act 3. sc. 4. 

" I am sick, methinks, but the disease I feel 
Pleaseth and punish eth : I warrant Love 
Is very like this, that folks talk of so : 
I SKILL not what it is." B. and Metcher, Martial Maid. 

" Now see the blindnes of us worldlye folk, how precisely we pre- 
sume to shoote our folish bolte, in those matters most in whiche we 
least can skill." — Sir T. More^ Be qiiatuor nouissimis, p. 73. 



^ [Quaere. 

" But this Molanna, were she not so shole, 
Were no lessc faire and beautifuU then she." 

Faerie Queene, Two Cantos of Mutabilitie, cant. 6. st. 40.] 



478 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART IT. 

Skill^ as now commonly used_, is manifestly Discernment : 
that faculty by wMcli things are properly divided and separated 
one from another. 

'' Into vii paries I haue this boke dynyded, 
So that the reder may chose where he wyll. 
The fyrste conteyneth how the Brytons guyded 
This lande from Brute, Moliuncius untyli. 
And from Moliuncius I haue sette for skyll 
To the nynthe yere of kynge Cassibelan 
The seconde parte." Fabian, Prologue. 

" I thought that fortitude had been a mean 
'Twixt fear and rashness ; not a lust obscene 
Or appetite of offending ; but a skill 
And nice discernment between good and ill." 

B. Jonson, Underwood. 

As we have in English Writ, Wrote, Wroten_, JVroot, Wrat, 
Wrate, and Written, for the past participle of ppitan, To 
Write ; so the characteristic letter i or y of the verb fcylan, 
in order to form the past tense, is changed to i short, or to A, 
or to E, or to o, or to oa, or to oo, or to ou, or to ow, or to 
u. And here again, as before in pcijian and fcican (and in 
all Anglo-Saxon words) pc become indifferently either sh or 

SK. 

Scale, therefore, in all its various applications, as well as 
shale, shell, shoal or shole, scowl, and scull, will be 
found to be merely the past participle of pcylan. 

[ " You have found, 

Skaling his present bearing with his past, 

That hee 's your fixed enemie." Coriolanus, p. 14. col. 1.] 

" The cormorant then comes, by his devouring kind, 
Which flying o'er the fen immediately doth find 
The fleet best stor'd of fish, when from his wings at full, 
As though he shot himself into the thicken'd skull, 
He under water goes, and so the shoal pursues." 

Poly-olhion, song 25. 

[" Let us seeke out Mydas whom we lost in the chase. 
He warrant he hath by this started a couey of bucks. 
Or roused a scul of phesants." 

Mydas {by Jolin Lily,) act 4. sc. 3.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 479 

" Now here lie fights on Galathe his horse, 
And there lacks work : anon he 's there a foote, 
And there they flye or dye, like scaled souls 
Before the belching whale." 

Troylus and Cressida, (p. 103, if paged.) 

On this passage of Shakespeare,, Mr. Steevens (whose notes 
are almost always useful and judicious ; as Mr. [Malone^s] 
are as constantly insipid and ridiculous) gives us tlie following 
note : 

" Sculls are great numbers of fishes swimming together. 
The modern editors^ not being acquainted with the term, 
changed it into Shoals. My knowledge of this word is de- 
rived from a little book called The English Expositor, London, 
printed by lohn Legatt, 1616. Again, in the 26th Song of 
Drayton's Poly-olbion ; 

'My silver-scaled scijls about my streams do sweep.' " 

I forbear to repeat to you the tedious nonsense of [Malone] 
which he has added to this note : for I think you do not wish 
to hear (nor, when heard, would you believe) that the Cacha- 
lot was — 'Hhe species of whale alluded to by Shakespeare.'^ 

"By this is your brother saued, your honour untainted, the poore 
Mariana advantaged, and the corrupt deputy scaled." — Measure for 
Measure, p. 72. 

On this passage Mr. Steevens mistakingly says, — " To 
Scale, as may be learn'd from a note to Coriolanus, act 1. 
sc. 1., most certainly means. To Disorder, To Disconcert, To 
put to flight. An army routed, is called by Holinshed, an 
army Scaled. The word sometimes signifies To Diffuse or 
Disperse ; at others, as I suppose in th.e present instance. To put 
into confusion.^' 

. " I shall tell you 

A pretty tale, it may be you haue heard it, 

But, since it serues my purpose, I will venture 

To SCALE 't a little more." Coriolanus, act. 1. sc. 1. 

On this passage Mr. Steevens says, 

" To Scale is To Disperse.^ The word is still used in the 

* [" May be you placed haue your hope alone 

In bandes, of which this circuit maketh showc, 



480 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

North. The sense is — Though some of you have heard the 
story, I will spread it wider, and diffuse it among the rest. 

" A measure of wine spilt, is called — a scaled pottle of wine, 
— in Decker^s comedy of the Honest Whore : 1635. So, in the 
Historie of Clyomen, Knight of the Golden Shield, &c. a play 
published in 1599. 

* The hugie heapes of cares that lodged in my minde, 

, Are SKALED from their nestling place, and pleasure's passage find.' 

" In the North they say — Scale the corn, i. e. Scatter it. 
Scale the muck well, i. e. Spread the dung well. 

^^ The two foregoing instances are taken from Mr. Lambe's 
notes on the old metrical history of Floddon Field. Again, 
Holinshed, vol. 2. p. 499. speaking of the retreat of the Welch- 
men, during the absence of Kichard II., says — They would no 
longer abide, but scaled and departed away. 

"In the Glossary to Gawin Douglases translation of Virgil, 
the following account of the word is given — Skail, skale. To 
scatter. To spread, perhaps from the Fr. Escheveler. Ital. 
Scapigliare, crines passos seu sparsos habere. All from the 
Latin Capillus. Thus — EscheveleVy Scheval, Skail — but of a 
more general signification.^^ — Sieevens. 

To these instances from Shakespeare, and those adduced by 
Mr. Steevens, may be added the following : 

" Ane bub of weddir folio wit in the taill 
Thik schour of rane mydlit full of haill. 
The Tyriane menye s kalis wyde quhare, 
And ah the gallandis of Troy fled here and tliare." 

Douglas y booke 4. p. 105. 



And whom dlsperst you vanquisht, knit in one 
Now eke assoone to ouercome you trowe. 
Though of your troopes that store is scald and gone 
Through wars and want, yoursclfe do see and knowe." 

Godfrey of Bidloigne, translated by R. C. Esq. 
p. 85. cant. 2. st. 73. 
" Ma forse hai tu riposta ogni tua speme 
In queste squadre, ond' hora cinto siedi. 
Quei die sparsi vincesti, uniti insieme 
Di vincer auco agevohnente credi : 
Se ben son le tue schiere hor moUo sceme, 
Tra le guerre, e i disagi, e tu te '1 vedi." 

Gierusaleinme Liberata.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 481 

" An old seek is aye s railing." ^ay\ Scottish Pi'overbs, p. 280. 

Shakespeare in King Lear, p. 288, mentions — "a sheal^d 
peascod." 

" All is not worth a couple of nut shalis." 

Skelton, p. 4. Edit. 1736. 

" Al is but nut shales 
That any other sayth, 
He hath in him such faith," Ibid. p. 154. 

" They may garlicke pill, 
Gary sackes to the mil. 
Or peseodes they may shil." Ibid. p. 145. 

And Ray, in his North Country Words, p. 53, tells us, — " To 
8HEAL, to separate : most used of milk. To sheal milk, is to 
curdle it, to separate the parts of it.^^ 

" Coughes and cardiacles, crampes and toth aches, 
Eeumes and radgondes, and raynous scalles." 

Vision of F. Ftoughman, pass. 21. fol. 112. p. 2. 

You laugh at the derivation from Scupigliare, Escheveler and 
Capillus, as introduced to account for the antient but now 
obsolete use of the word scale. How much more ridiculous 
would it appear, if attempted to be applied in explanation of the 
scale in all its modern uses. 

We have — Scale — a ladder.^ And thence 
Scale — of a besieged place. 
A pair of Scales. 
A Scale of degrees. 

Scale of a fish, or of our own diseased skin. 
Scale of a bone. 

Scale, and scaled (or scald) head. 
We have also — Shale of a nut, &c. 
Shell of a fish, &c. 
Shoal, Shole, or Skul of fishes. 
Scull of the head. 
Scowl of the eyes. 



^ [" Tu vuoi udir quant' c che Die mi pose 
Nell' eccelso giardino, ove costei 

A cosi lunga scala ti dispose."—// Faradim di Daufe, cant 26.] 

2 I 



483 or ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Shoulder. 

And finally — Skill^ 

Shilling, 
And — Slate. 

Now in every one of these, as well as in eacli of the instances 
produced of the antient use of the word scale ; one common 
meaning (and only one common meaning) presents itself imme- 
diately to our notice : viz. Divided, Separated. 

Let us look back upon the instances produced. 

The fishes come in shoals_, sholes, or sculs i (which is the 
same participle, pc being dificrently pronounced as sh or sk) ; 
that is, They come in separate divisions or parts divided from 
the main body : and any one of these divisions, (shoals or 
scTJLs) may very well again be scaled, i. e. divided or separated 
by the belching whale. 

The corrupt deputy was scaled (or shaled, if you please) 
by separating from him, or stripping ofi" his covering of hypo- 
crisy. 

The tale of Menenius was " scaled a little more ; ^^ by being 
divided more into particulars and degrees ; told more circum- 
stantially and at length. That I take to be Shakespeare's 
meaning by the expression : and not the staling or diffusing of 
the tale ; which, if they had heard it before, could not have been 
done by his repetition. For Menenius does not say that some 
of them had heard it before : that word some is introduced by 
Mr. Steevens in his note ; merely to give a colour to his expla- 
nation of " diffusing it amongst the rest.'' 

Holinshed's army of Welchmen "scaled (i. e. separated) and 
departed." 

Clyomen's cares were scaled (i. e. separated) from their 
nestling place. 

The Tyrian menye, in Douglas, skalit (i. e. separated) them- 
selves wide quhare. 

An old sack (as old men best know) is always skailing ; i. e. 
parting, dividing, separating, breaking. 

A " raynous (i. e. roynous, from ronger, rogner, royner ; 
whence also aroynt) scall," is a separation or discontinuity 



[III Cornwall they say " a skool of pilchards." — Ed.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 483 

of the skin or flesh, by a gnawing, eating forward, maladj^ : As 
is also a scall or Scaled head, called a scald head. 

[" Her crafty head was altogether bald, 
And, as in hate of honorable eld. 
Was overgrowne with scurfe and filthy scald." 

Faerie Queeiie, book 1. cant. 8. st. 47.] 

But I need not, I suppose, apply this same explanation indi- 
vidually to each of the other words mentioned. It applies 
itself: unless perhaps to scowl, i. e. separated eyes, or eyes 
looking different ways ; which our ancestors termed j'ceol-eaje. 
We say only j^ceol : i. e. scowl ; subaud. Eyes. 

"Than scripture scornid me and a skile loked," 

Fision of P. Ploughman, fol. 53. p. 1. pass. 11. 

(The Germans use Schal for the same.) 

In the same manner their name for the testicles, was j-callan, 
i. e. Divided, separated. 

Shoulder, which formerly was, and should still be, written 
shoulde, is also the past participle of this verb fcylan. 

" The due fashion of byrthe is this, fyrste the head cometh forwarde, 
then foloweth the necke and shouldes." — Byrth of Mankynde, fol. 13. 
p. 2. (1540.) 

The Latin, Italian, and French words Scala, Scaglia, Eschelle, 
Echelon,^ Escaille, kc. referred to by some of our etymologists 
as originals, are themselves no other than this same Northern 
participle. Hence also the French Eschalotte and the Italian 
Scalogna. 

I think it probable that shilling (Dutch, Schelling) may be 
corruptly written for shillen, or j'cylen, an aliquot part of a 
pound. And I doubt not in the least that slate is the past 
participle of the same verb j^ylan. 

^ Besides its modern uses, the French formerly employed the word 
Echelles for certain divisions of their army : and the modern very useful 
military position is well called Echelon : as 'Captain James (to whom, for 
his valuable publications at this time, our [besieged] country is so deeply 
indebted) informs us in his Military Bictionary. 

" President Fauchet in his book De la Milice et des drmees, tells us, 
that by this word {Echellen) were meant several troops of horse : so that 
Echelle in antient times signified what is now called a Troop." 

" Echelon, a position in military tactics, where each division follows 
the preceding one, like the steps of a ladder," &c. 



484 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

F. — This is singular. What you mention as a bare proba- 
bility _, appears to me doubtless. And where you have not the 
least doubtj I have the most. The meaning indeed of the past 
participle of pcylan would apply very well to slates_, which are 
thin flakes of stone separated or scaled from each other. But 
the words themselves seem too far asunder. 

H. — We must bring them nearer together. What we now 
call SLATE, was formerly sclat. 

" And thei not fyndinge in what parti thei shulden here hym in, for 
the cumpany of peple, steigeden up on the roof: and bi the sclatis 
thei senten him doun with the bedde in to the myddil." — Luke, ch. 5^. 
V. 19. 

" He buylded a royall mynster of lyme and stone, and couueryd it 
with plates of syluer in stede of sclate or leade." — Fabian, ^?ixtQ ^ , 
ch. 131. 

I suppose the word to have proceeded thus — skalit, sklait, 
SKLATE, SLATE. And I am the more confirmed in this suppo- 
sition, because our ancestors called slates, SKA^QS ^ *^® 
Scotch (as I am told by the Glossarist of Douglas) skellyis ; 
and the Dutch call them schalien.^ 

The French Chaloir, Nonchalance, the Italian 'Non cale, 

(" E pien di fe, di zelo ; ogni mortale 

Gloria, iraperio, tesor, mette in Non cale.^'' — (i. e. It shilh not.) 

Gie7'usalemme Liberata.) 

and the Latin Callidus ; are all from this same northern verb 
pcylan. And it is not unentertaining to observe how the French, 
Italian and Latin etymologists twist and turn and writhe under 
the words. If you have the curiosity to know, you may 
consult Menage's Orig. Ital. Article calere : and his Orig. 
Franc. Articles nonchalant and chaloir ; and Vossius, Art. 
call is. 

Shop ^ The past tense, and therefore past participle, of the 

Shape r- Anglo-Saxon verb Scyppan, To Fashion^ To Form, 

Ship J To Prepare, To Adapt. 

A SiiOY—formatiun aliquid (in contradistinction from a 



^ [Shale (Germ, schalen, to peel), slaty clay. — Roberts's Diet, of 
Geology. — En.] 



Clik IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 485 

stall) for the purpose of containing mercliandise for sale_, pro- 
tected from the weather. 

A SHIP — -formatum aliquid (in contradistinction from a 
Raft) for the purpose of conveying merchandise^ &c. by water^ 
protected from the water and the weather. 
Shape requires no explanation. 
" At whiclie the god of loue gan loken rowe 
Eight for dispite, and shope him to be wroken." 

Troylus, boke 1. fol. 168. p. 1. col. 2. 

" We ben shape 

Somtyme lyke a man or lyke an ape." 

Freres TaleJoX. 4^1.^.1. Go\. I. 
" He was goodly of shappe and of vysage, but that was vnjnged wyth 
lechery and cruelty." — Fabian, fol. 120. p. 2. col. 2. 
" Of dyuerse shappe and of dyuerse colours." 

Bines and Fauper, 1st Comm. cap. 28. 
" Atyre to costful or to straunge in shap." 

Ibid. 6th Comm. cap. 13. 
" The gloryous vyrgyn Mary cam3 out of the chapell in rayment and 
shappe lyke the knyghtes wyfe." — Myracles of our Lady, p. 14. 

Shroud "| Shroud_, in Anglo-Saxon 8cpub, vestitus, 
Shrowds J though now applied only to that with which 
the dead are clothed, is the past participle of Scpiban, vestire : 
and was formerly a general term for any sort of clothing what- 
ever.^ 

" In somer season whan softe was the sonn, 
I sJiope me in to a schroud, as I a schepeherde wer." 

Vision of F. Flonghman, pass. 1. 
Thus Athelstane commands_, 

" j!Ej)elj^ane cynmj. eallum mmum jejiepum 
bmnon mine jiic ^ecyj^e. j^at ic pille j)at je peba^ 
ealle pseja an eapm enjlipcman (jip ^^e him habba^. 
oj>(>e oj^epne jepmba^) pjiam tpam mmpa peojima 



^ [ " There is nether buske nor hay 

In Mey that it n'ill shroudid bene, 

And it with ncwc levis wrcne." Roin. of the Hose, line 55. 

" Than becometh the grounde so proude 

That it wol have a newe shroude. 

And make so (pieint his robe." Ibid, hne 65. — Ed.] 



4B6 or ABSTRACTION. [PAllT •II. 

ajyjce mon hme elce mona^ ane ambjia melej^. anb 
an /-cone fpicej^. o]>|>e an jiam peop)?e iiii penmjaj- 
anb 8 c ji u b poji tpelp monJ?a selc jeaji." 

You see here that ]'C]iub_, shroud, means any sort of cloth- 
ing generally. 

F. — Yes. I see the meaning of shroud ; but I see some- 
thing besides, worth more than the meaning of any word — pp 
je him habba^ ! — What, Doubt whether an Englishman could 
be found so poor as to accept this bounty ! Good God ! Were 
Englishmen ever such a people as this? Had they ever such 
kings ? And had their kings such counsellors ? And was this 
the manner of providing (not out of any taxes, but out of the 
king^s own estate) for a poor Englishman, if one could be found, 
who would accept such provision ? Was this my country ? 
And is this my country ? ^ 

H. — Oh, this was many ages ago. Long before the reign 
of Messrs. [Pitt] and [Dundas]. Long before the doctrine 
was in vogue or dreamed of, which has made so many small 
men great (small in every sense of the word :) I mean the 
[traitorous doctrine of giving up our last guinea, to secure a 
i remaining sixpence ; and the most precious of our rights, in 
order to secure the miserable rest :] Like pulling out the stones 
of an arch (and the key- stone amongst them) to render the 
edifice the stronger : or surrendering all our strong holds to 
an enemy, that the rest of the country may enjoy the greater 
security. 

But a truce with Politics, if you please. The business of 
this country, believe me, is settled. We have no more to give 
up : until some [Chancellor of the Exchequer] shall find out 
that grand desideratum of a substitute for bread, as he has 
already discovered a substitute for money. Till that period 
arrives, let us pursue the more harmless investigation into the 
meaning of words. 

The SHROWDS are any things with which tlie masts of a ship 
are dressed or clothed. 



^ [" E<i,o illud loc'upUdissimum mortalimn genus dixerim, in quo 
paupcrem iiivcnirc non posses." — Sc^ueca, Ep. 90. ed. 4to, Lips. p. 580.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 487 

" Sucli a noyse arose, 



As the SHROWDES make at sea in a stiffe tempest, 

As lowd, and to as many tunes." — Henry Fill. p. *234. 

[" With glance so swift the subtle lightning past. 
As split the sail-yards. 
The flaming shrowds so dreadful did appear." 

Dry den 8 Juvenal, sat 12. By Thomas Powis. 

" Oh cozen, thou art come to set mine eye : 
The tackle of my heart is crack'd and burnt, 
And all the shrowds wherewith my life should saile 
Are turned to one thred, one little haire." ^—King JoJiUy p. 23.] 

Flout — is tte past participle of Flitan, jurgari^ conten- 
dere. 

. " Here stand I, ladie, dart thy skill at me ; 

Bruise me with scorae, confound me with a flout." 

Loues Labours Lost, p. 140. 

Foul — the past participle of Fylan, apylan, bepylan^ To File; 
which we now write To Defile. 

[" Where feeling one close couched by her side, 
She lightly lept out of her filed bed." 

Faerie Queene, book 3. cant. 1. st. 62.] 

" For Banquo's issue haue I fil'd my mind, 
For them the gracious Duncan haue I murther'd." 

Macbeth, p. 139. 

*' Sirrah, I scorn my finger should be fil'd with thee." 

B. and Fletcher, Pilgrim, 

" A scabbit she'ep files all the flock." — Ray's Scottish Proverbs. 

Sprout^ A. -S. Sppote, fpjiant. Sprout is the past par- 

Spurt J ticiple of 8pjiitan, ppjiytan^ germinare, To Shoot 
out, To Cast forth. Spurt is the same word, by a customary 
metathesis. 



^ [On this passage Malone says, 

*' Shakespeare here uses the word shrouds in its true sense. The 
shrouds are the great ropes, which come from each side of the mast. 
In modern poetry the word frequently signifies the sails of a ship." !! 

It signifies the same here : " shrowds wherewith my life should saile.*^ 
He could not saile with the great ropes alone.] 



488 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Trouble — Is the past participle of Tpibulan_, tundere, 
conterere, pinsere, To Bruise, To Pound, To Vex. The Latin 
Tribulare is the same word ; differing only by a different in- 
^^nitive termination : Tribul-an, Tribul-are. As many other 
Latin verbs differ from the Anglo-Saxon verbs only by the 
different infinitive terminations an or re. 



Brook 

Broach 

Brack 

Break 

Breach 

Breech 

Breeches 

Bracca 

Brachium 



All these words are merely the same past par- 
ticiple (differently pronounced and written) of 
the verb I5)CIKA^j Bpecan, bpsecan, To 
Break. 

Brook (in the Anglo-Saxon Bpoc) approaches 
most nearly to our modern past tense broke : 
and indeed this supposed noun was formerly so 
written. 



" And so boweth fiirth bi a broke, beeth biixome of spech 
Tyll you fynden a forde, your fathers honourable, 
Wade in that water and wash you wel there." 

Vision of P. Ploughman, pass. 6. fol. 29. p. 2. 

" And helde the waye down by a broke syde." 

Cuchowe and Nygfityngale, fol. 351. p. 1. col. 1. 

" He lept quer a broke for to fight with the giaunt." 

Hist, of Prince Arthur, 3d part, ch. 79. 

" The eye that scorneth his fader, and despyseth the byrth of his 
inoder, rauyns of the broke s, that is to saye, fendes of helle brokes, 
shall delue out and pijJce out that eye."* 

Biues and Panper,^i\\ Comm. cap. 1. 

'* With knyghtly force and violence he entred the sayde cytye (London) 
and slewe the fore namyd Liuius Gallus nere unto a broke there at that 
daye rynnynge, and hym threwe into the sayd bkoke. By reason 
wherof long after yt was called Gallus or Wallus bkoke. And at this 
day the strete where some tyme ramie the sayde broke is nowe called 
Walhrohe.'' — Pahian's Chronicle, 4th parte,' ch. 65. 

Doctor Th. Hickes was aware that brook must be in some 
manner derived from Bpsecan : and gives this reason for it — 
'^ quia rivus exiliens terram perrumpit." And this is very 
aptly described in Beaumont and Fletcher's Faithful Shep- 
herdess. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 489 

" Underneath the RTOund, 



In a long hollow the clear spring is bound, 

Till on yon side where the morn's sun doth look. 

The stmggiing water breaks out in a brook." 

Abroach is Abjiseo, the regular past tense of bpsecan, by the 
customary addition of the prsefix a. 

" He we fire at the flynt four hundred wynter, 
But thou haue towe to take it, with tinder or broches. 
All thy labour is loste." 

Vmon of F. Iloughmn, pass, 18. fol. 95. p. 1. 

Brack is not far removed from our modern past tense 
Brake J which is still in use with us as well as Broke; and it 
approaches still nearer to the past tense as it was formerly 
written Brak. 

" He biholdinge in to heuene, blesside and brak, and gaf looues to 
disciplis." — Mattheu, ch. 14. v. 19. 

" Hee feutred his speare and ranne agams Sii' Trian, and there either 
bracke their speares all to peeces." 

Hist, of Prince Arthur, 2d part, ch. 94. 

" So he ranne to his sword, and when he saw it naked, he praised it 
much, and then he shooke it, and therewith he bracke it in the middes." 
—Ibid. 3d part, ch. 79. 

Though BRACK (as a noun) is not much in fashion at present, 
it was formerly in good and common use. 

" Let not a brack i' th' stuff, or here and there 
The fading gloss, a general loss appear." 

B. and Fletcher, Epilogue to Valenfmian. 
" You may find time out in eternity, 
Deceit and violence in heavenly justice. 
Life in the grave, and death among the blessed, 
Ere stain or brack in her sweet reputation." 

Ibid. A Wife for a Month. 

A BREACH (bjiic) or break, the same word as the former, with 
the accustomed variation of ch for ck. 

*' Is it no BREAKE of ductio to withstande your king? " 

Hurt of Sedition, Bi/ Sir John Cheke. 
" The contraric partie neyther could by justice, neither would by 
boldcnesse haue enterprised the breake thereof." — Ibid. 



490 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Of BREECH (the same participle) Skinner says well — " Verum 
etymon vocis breech commodius deduci potest ab A.-S. 
bpyce, ruptio_, ruptura: quia sc. in ano corpus in foramen 

quasi disrumpi videtur." -And breeches, which cover those 

parts where the body is Broken into two parts. Hence also 
assuredly the Latin Bracca ; ^ and^ I believe,, the Greek and 
Latin Bpa^Kov, Brachium. 



^ " Braca (pro quo vulgo bracca, vel bracha, minus recte scribunt) 
Isidore, lib. xix. jjap. xxii. videtur dici, quod sit brevis, nempe a Grseco 
^paxvs. Aliis placet, esse a paKos, quod a prjaro-o) seu p-qywpi, unde ab 
Eustatliio esse dicitur buppoayos Ifxanov, vestis disrupta. ^oles (quos 
Komani raaxime imitantur) literam ^ literse p prsemittunt, quando post 
p sequitur k, t, vel d, ut, pvTijp, ^pvTrjp, pobov, ^podov, paKos, ^paKos, &c. 
Sed sane bracce vox est a Gallis Belgis. Quippe hodieque Belgse, sive 
Germani inferiores, earn broeck appellant, ut Cimbri, 5roy, Britanni, 
breaclie. At braca esse a Gallis, clare docet Diodorus Siciilus, cujus 
illud de Gallis, ;^pa)i/rat de ava^vpiaiv, as eKcivot ^paKus KokovaLV. Simi- 
liter Hesycliius, olimque Galliee pars ab harum usu dicta b?'acata. Idem 
confirmant versus isti apud Sueton. in Julio, cap. Ixxx. : 

' Gallos Caesar in triumphum ducit : iidera in curia 
Galli bracas deposuerunt,' latum clavum sumserunt.* 

Sed et bracarum Gallicarum liquido meminere Vopiscus in Aurehano, 
Lampridius in Alexandre Severo, pluresque alii. Bracatos quoque mi- 
lites Gallicos appellat Ammianus, lib. xvi. Quare et bracce vocem Gal- 
licam putamus : vel, si origo est Grseca, vocem cam acceperint Galli a 
Massiliensibus, qui Grsece joquebantur. Non soli autem b7'acis usi 
Galli; sed et Persse, quibus eas tribuit Ovidius v. Trist. el. x. item 
Sarmatse, sive Scytbse, ut ex eodem, item Mela, et Valerii v. Argon, 
constat." — G. J. Vossius. 

"Brachium, ^paxioovy-ano rrjs &paxvTr]T0S' Festus : Bi'acMum nos, 
Graci ^paxi<ov dicunt : quod deducitur a ^paxv, Jioc est, breve ; eo quod 
ab humeris ad manus breviora sint, quam a coxis plantce. Sed videtur 
obstare Testo, quod bracJiium, ac ^paxicov, proprie dicatur de osse, quod 
inter scapularum et cubiti articulos interjacet. Eoque potius brachium 
sic dici censeo, quia os id, quod dixi, breve sit, imprimis si conferetur 
cum osse femoris, cui avakoyov est. Nam ut pcdibus manus, lacertus 
tibiae, genui cubitus, sic femori bracliia respondent. Kc quia de hac vocis 
proprietate aliquis litem movere possit, addo rrjv okqv x^'-P^ (intelligo 
per xf*P« totum illud ab humero usque ad extremes digitos, quomodo 
Iiac voce etiam usi Homerus et Hippocrates) dividi a Galeno in partes 
tres; ^paxLova, tttjxw, et oKpox^ipov. quae ipsa etiam complexus Naso, 
cum, 1 Met. ait : 

* Laudat digitosque manusque 

Brachiaque et nudos media plus parte lacertos.* 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 491 

Snow — In the Anglo-Saxon Snap, and the same in 
Douglas. 

" His scliulderis heildit with new faUin snaw." 

BouglaSi booke 4. p. 108. 

" And tharwithal attanis on eueiy sydis 
The dai-tis thik and ffeand takillis ghdis, 
As dois the schoure of snaw." — Ibid, booke 11. p. 386. 

It is the regular past tense and therefore past participle 
of Snipan^ which Gower and Chaucer write To Snew. 

"And as a busshe, whiche is besnewed. 
Their berdes weren hore and white." 

Gower, lib. 1. fol. 19. p. 1. col. 2. 
" The presentes euery daie bene newed, 
He was with yeftes all besnewed." 

Ibid. lib. 6. fol. 135. p. 2. col. 1. 
''A better viended man was nowhere none. 
Without bake meate was neuer hys house 



Quare, cum tres sint brachii partes, os illud totius brachii maximum, 
quod est inter humerum et cubitum, proprie ^paxiav, sen bracJiium ap- 
pellabitur. Os alterum inter brachium et manum Latinis fuerit lacei'tus, 
Grsecis nrjx^s, quanquam hsec vox et angustius interdum sumatur. Nam 
cum OS illud duobus constet ossibus ; uno inferiori et gi'andiori, altero 
superinsidente et minori; illud quidem eodem nomine cum toto dicitur 
irrjxvs, sive ulna; hoc vero, quia parvarum rotarum radios refert, KcpKis, 
sive radius nomi latur. Quod superest aKpa x^t-p, et una voce aKpox^i-pov, 
ac KUT e^oxrjv, x^tp, Latinis manm dicitur. Ex his igitur liquet, quid 
proprie brachii nomine sit intelligendum. At Celsus, lib. viii. cap. 1. 
quemadmodum pro bracliio humerum dixit, ita per brachium intelligit 
omne illud a scapulis dependens usque ad extremam manum. Qui 
similiter ^paxiovos vocem usurpat Aristoteles, lib. 1. Hist or. Animal, 
cap. XV. ubi hae a philosopho statuuntur partes ^paxiovos' w/xo?, ayKav, 
(oXeKpavov, tttjxv^, x^i-p- ^H-os ci est articulus brachii cum (op-oirKarr], sive 
scapula. AyKoiv est, quod interjacet inter dictum articulum et eum cui 
innitimur. Is articulus Aristoteli est (oXcKpavov, quibusdam cubitus, aliis 
(jibber brachii, norainatur. Tlr\xvs est quod inter manum et acutam 
gibberamque brachii partem, situm est. Xeip palma et digitis constat. 
Quaedam tamcn ex hisce vocnbulis aliter ab Hippocrate et aliis accipi, 
non ignoramus : et qui nescit, discere possit ex definitionibus medicis 
doctissimi Gorraei. Isidorus autem plane audiri non meretur, cum lib. 
xi. cap. 1. hoc pacto scribit : Brachia a fortitudine nominata : Bapv e?iivi 
Grace (jrave et forte sujnificat, in brachiis enim tori lacertorum sunt et 
insi(jne ramculorum robur exi-flit.'" — G. J. Yossius. 



492 or ABSTRACTION. [part II. 

Of fyslie and fleslie, and tbat so plenteouse 
It SNEWED in hys house of meate and drinke." 

Prologues, The Franheleyn. 

SnoWj is simply — that which is sniwed or skewed.^ 

Loss ■) The past participle of AlHSA^f, Lyj-an, amittere. 
Loose J dimittere.^ 

" Their arrows finely pair'd, for timber and for feather, 
With birch and brazil piec'd, to fly in any weather ; 
And shot they with the round, the square, or forket pile, 
The loose gave such a twang, as might be heard a mile." 

Poly-olbion, song 26. 

Knee -^ I believe the Gothic hNAlVQAN^ hNGl- 
Neck lVA^j and the Anglo-Saxon J^Qijan (which 

Knuckle \ have all the same meaning, viz. incurvare_, incli- 
NoD -^ nare. To Bow, To Bend, To Incline) to be the 

same verb ; though something differently pronounced : And I 

suppose KNI\<?, Dneop, and our English knee, to be the past 

tense of this verb. 

Neck, in the Anglo-Saxon J^necc (or j^nejj) may perhaps 

also be the past tense of J^nijan, 

Knuckle, in Anglo-Saxon Cnucl (perhaps formerly ^^nujel) 

I suppose to be the diminutive of J^nuj ; which may likewise 

have been the regular past tense of J^nijan. 

I offer the foregoing to you barely as conjecture. But we 
know that J^nah is perpetually used in the Anglo-Saxon as 
the past tense of j^nijan : by adding to it the participial ter- 
mination ED, we have J^naheb, )^nah^b (a broad) ; from which, 
I doubt not, we have our English nod, i. e. An inclination 
of the head. 

^ [In Norfolk Snew is used as the praeterite ; and Shew as the prae- 
terite of Show, which is also found in Shakespeare. — Ed.] 

^ [There is no autliority for rendering this word by dimittere : it should 

have h&&[i perdere. AlflSAN^ answers to our Lose, but AA^SQA^ 
to our Loose or Loosen. (See above, p. 85, 91.) Eichardson makes 
strange confusion, by erroneously deriving Loose from Uusan, and stating 
that loose and lose " are the same word, somewhat differently applied; " 
which he labours to sui)i)ort by a forced explanation of the latter word. 
See Additional Notes. — Ed.] 



CH. IV.] OP ABSTRACTION. 493 



Notch 

NOCK^ 

Nook 

Niche 

Nick 



Which vary respectively in sound only by the im- 
material difference of ch or ck^ have all one com- 
mon meaning : and I believe them to be the past 
participle of the verb To Nick, incidere. 



"All iTiffe of haire^ my nailes unnockt, as of such seemeth best, 
That wander by their wits, deformed so to be." 

Songes ^c. By the Earle of Surrey Sfc. fol. 61. p. 2. 

" Like the good fleacher that mended his bolte with cuttinge of the 
NOCKE." — Br. Martin, Of Priestes unlauful Mariages, ch. 13. p. 250. 

" The rough Hibernian sea I proudly overlook- 
Amongst the scatter'd rocks, and there is not a nook 
But fi'om my glorious height into its depth I pry." 

Poly-olbion, song 80. 

[ " Or did his genius 

Know mine the stronger dseraon, fear'd the grapple, 

And looking round him, found this nook of fate 

To skulk behind my sword." — Bryden, Bon Sebastian, act 1. sc. 1,] 

The Italian and French languages have many words_, Nicchio, 
Nicchia, Niche, &c. of the same origin. 

Wroth "^ 

Wrath I All these are the past tense and therefore the past 

Wreath ' participle of ppi^an^ torquere^ To Writhe. The 

Raddle ' two former are applied to the mind ; and_, together 

Wry with wreath, (or writh) speak themselves. 

Riddle J 

A RADDLE ^ hedge, is a hedge of pleached or plashed or 
twisted or wreathed twigs or boughs. I suppose raddle to be 
so pronounced for ppa^el, the diminutive of ppa'S. 

So RIDDLE metaphorically. 

WRif I suppose to be so pronounced for ppiS. 



^ ["NocKE."— i2. Jscham, p. 130.] 

° " With the help of these tools they were so very handy, that they 
came at last to build up their huts or houses very handsomely ; rad- 
dling, or working it up like basket-work all the way round, which was 
a very extraordinary piece of ingenuity, and looked very odd." 

Bobinson Crusoe, vol. 2. p. 119. edit. 1790. 



494 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 



Deal 

Dell 
Dole 

DOULE 
DOWLE 



These are the past tense and past participle of the 
verb di^lA.Q^t^, Dselan, dividere, partiri^ To 
Deal, To divide. To distribute. 



" My wife shal haue of that I wan with truth and no more, 
And DEALE among my daughters and my dear children." 

Vision of P. Ploughman, pass. 7. fol. 33. p. 2. 

" Thylke that God geueth moste, leest good they deleth." 

Ibid. pass. 11. fol. 45. p. 2. 

" If he be pore, she helpeth hym to swynke. 
She kepeth his good, wasteth neuer a dell." 

Marchauntes Tale, fol. 28, p. 2. col. 2. 

" I consent, and conferme euery dell. 
Your wordes all and your opinyon." 

Ibid. fol. 29. p. 2. col. 2. 

" Al this sentence me lyketh euery dell." 

Wife of Bathes Prol. fol. 34. p. 2. col. 2. 

" I shall tell you a part now, and the other deale to morrow." 

Hist, of Prince Arthur, 3rd part, ch. 75. 

. [" He ceast, and vanisht flew to th' upper deaLe, 
And purest portion of the heavenly seat." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, Translated by H. (7. p. 10.^] 

" And that night a doale, and al they that would come had as much 
flesh and fish, wine and ale as they might eate and drinke, and euery 
man and woman had twelue pence, come who would. Thus with his 
owne hands dealed he his money." 

Mist, of Prince Arthur, 3rd part, ch. 171. 

[" Clients of old were feasted ; now a poor 
Divided dole is dealt at th' outward door." 

Prydeu^s Juvenal, sat. 1. 

" And slaves, now manumiz'd, on their dead master wait : 
They hoist him on the bier, and deal the dole." 

Prydens Third Sat. of Persius.] 



* [" Tacque, e sparito rivolo del cielo 
A le parti piu eccelsc, e piu serene." 

Gierusalemme Liberata, cant. 1.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 495 

" We rede in holy wryte. Deut. xxvii. Cursed be he that flytteth the 
boundes and the doles or termes of his neyghbour, and putteth hym 
out of his ryght." — Biues and Paupei^ 10th Comm. cap. 7. 

In this last passage, dole is applied to a Land-mark, by 
which the lands of different occupants are divided and appor- 
tioned} 



" It was your presurmize, 



That in the dole of blowes your son might drop." 

Henry IF. 2d part, p. 76. 

Mr. Steevens, on this passage, says — "The dole of blows 
is the distribution of blows. Dole originally signifies the 
portion of Alms (consisting either of meat or money) that was 
given away at the door of a nobleman. ^^ 

"Now my masters, happy man be his dole, say I : Euery man to his 
business." — Henry IV. 1st part, p. 54. 

Sir J. Hawkins says — " The portion of Alms distributed at 
Lambeth palace gate, is at this day called the dole.^^ 

" If it be my luck, so : if not, happy man be his dole." 

Merry Wives of Windsor, p. 116. 

In all the above passages, and wherever the word is used, 
DOLE is merely the Anglo-Saxon past participle bal ; and has 
not in itself the smallest reference to Alms, or to the nobleman's 
gate, or to Lambeth palace; if indeed those places have any 
distinguished connection with Alms. But dole (i. e. Dal) 
might very well be applied to any things divided, distributed, 
or Dealt out : and therefore to land-marks, and to blows in a 
battle, &c.' 



* [" Foji ))an ])e ^]\i baelaj' f inb ge bselebe fujih hij. Apa on eaj-c 
jiice j?am ylbfcan j^una. Ap|iica on j-u^ baele jjaej" Chamej- cynne. anb 
8ujiopa on noji^ ba^le laphejjey opj^pjiinje." 

jElfi'ic. de Veteri Te'stainento, p. 8.] 

^ f " He with their multitude was nought dismay'd, 
But with stout courage turn'd upon them all. 
And with his brond-iron round about him layd ; 
Of which he dealt large almes." 

Faerie Queene, book 4. cant. 4. st. 32. 



496 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

In the following passage from Chancer, there is no allusion 
to any of these. 

" And for thou trewe to loue slialt be, 
I wyl, and eke commaunde the, 
That in one place thou set al hole 
Thine hert, without halfin dole." 

Bom. of the Rose, fol. 131. p. 1. col. 2. 

As it has happened in the interpretation of dole ; so does 
it with DOWLE : and so will it usually happen, when the 
interpreters seek the meaning of a word (or rather endeavour 
to collect it) singly from the passages in which the word is 
found : for they usually connect, with the unknown word, the 
meaning of some other word or words in the sentence. A 
little regard to the individual etymology of the word whose 
meaning is sought, would secure them from this perpetually 
repeated error ; and conduct them to the intrinsic meaning of 
the word. 

*' The elements 



Of whom your swords are temper'd, may as well 

Wound the loud windes, or with bemockt-at stabs 

Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish 

One DOWLE that 's in my plumbe." {plume.) — Tempest, p. 12. 

Mr. Steevens here tells us, that — '^ Bailey, in his Dictionary, 
says that dowle is a Feather ; or rather the single particles of 
the Down" 

To which Mr. Malone adds — " Cole, in his Latin Dictionaiy, 
1670, interprets — young dowle — by Lanugo" 

But bal, bsel, dole, doule, dowle, deal, dell, are all 
but one word differently pronounced and differently written; 
and mean merely a part, piece, or portion, without any desig- 
nation of Feather or Down, or Alms, or any other thing. And 
when the cards are Dealed or Dealt round to the company 
within doors ; each person may as properly be said to receive 



See Milton : 

"Dealing dole among his foes." — Sampson Agonistes, v. 1529. 
See also Translation (1598) of Orlando Innamorato, 

" Thus Ferraw, brauo-like, doth deale his dole."] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 497 

his DOLE or DOWLE (i. e. that which is Dealed out. Distributed, 
or Dealt to him) as the attendant beggars at the gate. 

Thus Chaucer, in the Plowman's Tale, fol. 99. p. 2. col. 2. 

" The gryflfon giynned as he were wood, 
And loked louely as an owle, 
And swore by cokes hert bloode 
He wolde him tere euery doule." 

What think you is contained 'in this threat of the gryffon? 
That he will tear off the feathers, or the small particles of Down 
from the pelican ? Surely not. But that he would tear him, 
as we say, piecemeal ; tear every piece of him, tear him all to 
pieces. 

Skinner is of opinion, and reasonably, that dollar also 
belongs to bal, portio — ^^ quia sc. est aurei, seu, ducati dimi- 
dium/' 

Howl "\ 

^ / The past participle of Dyllan, Iriellan, ululare, 

^^''' \ To Yell. 

LL ) 



Yell 
Room 
Rim 



/ Are the past participle of Ryman, be-pyman, dilatare, 
^"^ \ amplificare, extendere. 

Room means dilatum. Extended, Place, Space, Extent, 

In the second chapter of Luke, verse 7. where our modern 
translation has it — ^' There was no room for them in the inn,^' 
the old English translation says — " There was not Place to 
hem in the comyn stable." Non erat eis Locus in diver- 
sorio. The Anglo-Saxon — J^ij nsepbon pum m cumena 
hur. The Gothic— NI VAS IM KflMlS IN STA^A 

cJiAmmA. 

["At whose first entrie thearunto he made him Master of the 
Requests, having then no better roome voyde." 

Life of Syr Thomas More, By Mr. Hoper, p. 32. 

" In the yere xiiij of his gracious raigne there was a parliament holden, 
whereof sir Thomas More was chosen speaker. Who being very lothe to 
take this roome uppon him, made an oracion." — Ihld. p. 34. 

*' The duke of Norfolk, in audience of all the people theare assembled, 
shewed, that he was from the kinge himselfe streightlie chardged by 



498 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

speciall commission, theare openlie in presence of them all to make decla- 
racion how muche all England was beholdinge to Sir Thomas More for 
his good service, and how worthie he was to have the highest egome in 
the realme." — Life of Syr Thomas More, By Mr. Roper, p. 55. 

" Yet nevertheles he must for his owne part needes confesse that in 
all things by his grace alleadged he had donne no more then was his 
dutie: and farther disabled himselfe to be unmeete for that hoome." 

Ibid. p. 56. 

*' He made suite unto the duke of Norfolke, his singular good friend, 
to be a meane to the kinge that he might, with his grace's favour, be 
discharged of that chardgeable roome of the chauncellorship, wherin, for 
certain infirmities of his body, he pretended himself unable anie longer to 
serve." — Ibid. p. 65. 

" Besides this, the manifolde goodness of the king's highnes himselfe, 
that hathe binne soe manie waies my singular good lord, and that hath 
soe deerlie loved and trusted me, even at my verie first comming into his 
honourable service with the dignity of his honourable Privie-Counsaile 
vouch safinge to admit me, and to ofiices of great credit and worsliip most 
liberallie advanced me; and finally with that weightie roome of his 
grace's high chauncellor." — Ibid. p. 93. 

" It may like your highness to cal to your gracious remembrance, 
that at such time as of the great weightie rome and office of your 
chauncellor (with which so farre above my merites or qualities able and 
mete therfore, your highnes had of your incomparable goodnes honoured 
and exalted me)." — Ibid. p. 107.] 

Rim (of pyman) is the utmost Extent in breadth of any 
thing. 

Brim (of be-pyman) is also the Extent of the capacity of 
any vessel. 

[ " and ran at him amaine 

With open mouth, that seemed to containe 
A full good pecke within the utmost brim." 

Faerie Queene, book 6. cant. 12. st. 26. 
" Then by the edge he doth his mantle take. 
He bowes it, plaites it, reacheth towards him 
The plait, and to these farder speeches brake, 
More then to fore of visage spiteful grim, 

thou that scorne of hardest brunts dost make, 

1 peace and warre bring in this plaited brim. 
Thine be the choice." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, Translated by R. C. Esq. 
Windet, 1594. p. 93. cant. 2. st. 89.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 499 

" Which from a large-BRiM'D lake 
To hie her to the sea with greater haste doth make." 

Foly-olbion, song 30. 

Large -brim' D (or be-pym'b) is widely extended in breadth. 

Groom] — We apply this name to persons in various situa- 
tions. There is a groom of the stables, a groom of the cham- 
bers, a GROOM of the stole, a groom porter, a 5ri^e-GRooM, 
&c. But all of them denote attendance, observance, care, and 
custody ; whether of horses, chambers, garments, bride, &c. 

[" The gentle lady, loose at random lefte. 

The greene-wood long did walke, and wander wide, 

At wilde adventure, like a forJorne wefte : 

Till on a day the Satyres her espide. 

Straying alone withouten groome or guide. 

Her up they tooke, and with them home her ledd." 

'Faerie Queene^ book 3. cant. 10. st. 36. 
" Ne wight with him for his assistance went, 
But that gTeat yron groome, his gard and government." 

Ibid, book 5. cant. 4. st. 3.] 
" He is about it, the doores are open : 
And the surfeted groomes doe mock their charge 
With snores." Macbeth, p. 136. col. 2. 

Groom therefore has always one meaning. It is applied 
to the person by whom something is attended. And, notwith- 
standing the introduction of the letter r into our modern word 
groom, (for which I cannot account) I am persuaded that it is 
the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb Dyman, curare, 
regere, custodire, cavere, attendere ; ^ and that it should be 
written goom, without the r. And I think it a sufficient con- 
firmation of my opinion, that what we now call Bride-G^ooUy 
our ancestors called Bjiib-jum. And, at present, in the col- 
lateral languages there is no r ; 

The Germans calling him — Brauti-gam. 
The Dutch .... Bruide-gom. 
The Danes .... Brud-gom. 
And the Swedes .... Brud-gumme. 



^ [" Foji jja^jia kniinja geleapleaj^re ]?e pojileron heojia fepditen 
anb }p^y polcej- CIOOeLeASTe ]?e ne DIODDe sobej-." 

jJ'Jlfric. de Hderi TcdamentOy p. ^16.] 
2 K 2 



500 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Swoop ") " All my pretty ones ! 

Swop J Did you say All ? Oh HeH Kite ! All ? 

What, all my pretty chickens and their damme 

At one fell s wo ope ? " Macbeth, act iv. 

Mr. Steevens on this passage^ says — " Swoop is the descent 
of a bird of prey on his quarry. It is frequently however used 
by Drayton in his Poly-olbion, to express the swift descent of 
rivers.^^ 

Drayton has used it in his Poly-olbion only three times : 
in his first, sixth_, and twenty-eighth songs; but never as a 
substantive, 

" Proud Tamer swoops along with such a lusty train, 
As fits so brave a flood." Song 1. 

" Thus as she swoops along with all that goodly train.'* Song 6. 

" And in her winding banks, along my bosom led, 
As she goes swooping by." Song 28. 

In this use of the word by Drayton there is nothing antique, 
or unusual, or in the least difierent from the common, modern, 
every day's use of the word : if we except only the spelling of it. 
Put SWEEPS and sweeping instead of swoops and swooping, and 
no man would ask for an interpreter. 

[" Thus, as some fawning usurer does feed 

With present sums th' unwary spendthrift's need, 
You sold your kindness at a boundless rate ; 
And then o'erpaid the debt from his estate : 
Which, mould'ring piece-meal, in your hands did fall ; 
Till now at last you came to swoop it all." 

Dry dens First Part of the Conquest of Granada, act 1. sc. 1.] 

The Anglo-Saxon verb is Spipan, in modern English To Sweep. 
Swoop and swop are (as we have already seen in so many other 
instances) its regular past participle, by the change of the 
characteristic i to o. 

Swoop has nothing to do with the descent of a bird ; or with 
any descent or ascent ; but it may be applied to either : for it 
has to do with a body in motion, either ascending, descending, 
or horizontal j and with a body removing all obstacles in its 
passage. 

A swop between two persons, is where, by the consent of 
the parties, without any delay, any reckoning or counting, or 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 501 

other adjustment of proportion, something is Swept off at once 
by each of them. 

Swoon — This word was formerly written, Swough, swowe, 

SAVOWNE, ASWOWNE, SWOND, SOWNE, and SOWND. 

*' That what for fere of slaunder, and dred of deth 
She loste both at ones wit and breth 

And in a swough she lay." — Chaucer, Lucrece, fol. 215. p. 3. col. 3. 
" I fel in suche a slomber and a swowE, 
Nat al a slepe, ne fully wakynge, 
And in that swowe methought I herde sing 
The sorie byrde the leude cuckowe." 

Cuclwwe and NygMyngale, fol. 351. p. 1. col. 2. 
" Whan she this herd, aswoune down she falleth." 

Gierke of Oxenfordes Tale, fol. 51. p. 1. col. 1. 
*' Aswoune I fel, bothe deed and pale." 

Rom. of the Rose, fol. 128. p. 2. col. 1. 
*' Whan this woman sawe this sharte and redde the letter, she felle 
downe in swowne." — Biues and Pauper, 6th Comm. cap. 15. 

" Hee tooke such a hartily sorrow at her words, that he fell downe to 
the floore in a swond. And when Sir Launcelot awaked of his swond 
hee lept out at a Bay window." — Hist, of Prince Arthur, 3d part, ch. 8. 

" Hee fell downe off his horse in a sowne." — Ihid. 2d part, ch. 59. 

" Hee fell ouer his horse mane in a sownd." Ihid. ch. 140. 

Swoon &c. is the past participle of Spijan, stupere ; whose 
regular past tense is Swog, or Swoug, written by Chaucer 
Swough and Swowe : adding to which the participial termination 
EN, we have Swowen, Swowne ; and with the customary prsefix 
A, Aswowne. 

p > The past participle of the verb To Click, 

^ > Puddle was antientlv written Podell. 

Pool J 

" And all the coutre whiche was byfore lykened to paradyse for fayre- 
nesse and plente of the contre, tourned in to a foule stynkynge podell, 
that lasteth in to this daye, and is called the deed see." 

JDiues and Patiper, 6th Comm. cap. 16. 

It is the regular past tense and past participle of the verb 
To Piddle. 



502 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Pool is merely the contraction of Podel, Poodle, Pool. 

F. — I hardly think the word Piddle to be of any long stand- 
ing in the language ; as the word pool (or Pul, as the Anglo- 
Saxons wrote it) certainly is. There is no antient authority^ I 
believe, for the use of the word Piddle : and yet^ to justify your 
derivation, it ought at least to be as antient in the language as 
the Anglo-Saxon Pul. 

H. — I cannot produce any Anglo-Saxon or antient authority 
for it. Yet it cannot be of very modern introduction ; since it 
long ago furnished a name to one of our rivers. 

" Whilst Proom was troubled thus, where nought she hath to do. 
The PIDDLE, that this while bestirr'd her nimble feet, 
In falling to the pool, her sister Froora to meet, 
And having in her train two little slender rills, 
Besides her proper spring, wherewith her banks she fills. 
To whom since first the world this later name her lent, 
(Who antiently was known to he instiled Trent) 
Her .small assistant brooks Jier second name have gained T 

Poly-olbion, song 2. 

Bead — The past participle of Bibban, orare, To bid, To 
invite, To solicit. To request. To pray. 

Bead (in the Anglo-Saxon Beabe, oratio, something 'prayed) 
is so called, because one was dropped down a string every time 
a prayer was said, and thereby marked upon the string the 
number of times prayed. 

[" Silly old man, that lives in hidden cell. 
Bidding his beades all day for his trespas." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 1. st. 30. 
" All night she spent in bidding of her bedes." — Ibid. cant. 10. st. 3.] 

Gewgaw*) What we write Gewgaw is written, in the Anglo- 

Gaud J Saxon, trejap. It is the past participle of the 

verb De-jipan : and means any such trifling thing as is given 

away or presented to any one.^ Instead of gewgawes it is 

sometimes written gigawes and gewgaudes. 

" And of Holy Scriptures Saices 

He counteth them for gigawes." Skelton, p. 171. (Edit. 1736.) 



^ [[ dou1)t tliis etymology, (iaud and gewgaw, are rather De-eb 
and De-geab, from Gabiau and Ee-eabian. — 11. T.l 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 503 

[" Go back to what thy infancy began. 

Thou who wert never meant to be a man, 

Eat pap and spoonmeat : for thy gugaws cry." 

Dry den's Third Sat. of Persius. 
" Give to your boy, your Csesar, 

This rattle of a globe, to play withal. 

This GU-GAU^ world." Dryden, All for Love, act 3. sc. 1.] 

" May not Morose, with his gold, 

His GEWGAUDES, and the hope she has to send him 

Quickly to dust, excite this ? " 

B. and Fletcher, The WomarCs Frize, 

Gaud has the same meaning, and is the same as the fore- 
going wordj with only the omission of the prsefix ge, gi^ or gew. 
It is the past participle of Irijzan ; Gaved, Gav^dj Gavd, Gaud. 

*' Here is a mittayne eke, that ye may se. 
He that his hande wol put in this mittayne 
He shal haue multiplyeng of his grayne, &c. 
By this GAUDE haue I wonne euery yere 
An hundred marke sythen I was Pardonere." 

Frol. of the Pardoners Tale, fol, 65: p. 2. col. 2. 
*' And also thynke wel, that this is no gaude." 

Troyliis, boke 2. fol. 165. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Quhat God amouit him with sic ane gaude 
In his dedis to use sic slicht and fraude." 

Douglas, booke 10. p. 315. 
" And stolne the impression of her fantasie, 
With bracelets of thy haire, rings, gawdes, conceits, 
Knackes, trifles, nosegaies, sweetmeats." 

Mids. Nights Breame, p. 145. 

" My lone to Hermia 

(Melted as is the snow) 

Seems to me now 

As the remembrance of an idle gaude, , 

Which in my childhood I' did doat upon." 

Ibid, act 4. sc. 2. p. 158. 
" Sweeting mine, if thou mine own wilt be, 
I 've many a pretty gaud, I keep in store for thee ; 
A nest of broad-fac'd owls, and goodly urchins too." 

Poly-olbion, song 21. 

Laugh — Is the regular past tense and past participle of the 



504 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Anglo-Saxon verb l^lihan, ridere; viz. J>lah, which we write 
LAUGH. "Vox t)lahan (says Skinner) licet apud Somnerum 
non occurritj non dubito quin olim in usu fuerit.^^ Had Skinner 
been aware of the regular change of the characteristic letter in 
all the Anglo-Saxon verbs, he would have been well contented 
with )^lihan ; but certainly there remained for him the Gothic 
hAAhQA^^ though not the Anglo-Saxon I>lahan. 

Wharf "1 Are the past participles of )^pyp}:an, pyppan ; 

Warp J ambire, projicere. 

Wall — Is the past participle of pilan, connectere,, copulare, 
To Join together, To Consolidate, To Cement. And its meaning 
is singly, consolidated, cemented, or joined firmly together. 
The Anglo-Saxon peal is sometimes applied by them in the 
same manner in which alone we now use it; viz. for any 
materials, brick, stone, mud, clay, wood, &c. consolidated, 
cemented, or fastened together : but it is also sometimes used 
by them for the cement itself, or that by which the materials 
are connected. 

"Jpij haepbon "cyjelan poji j"can. anb ryjipan poji peallum." 
" They haid brick for stone, and sUme had they for Mortar.'' 

Genesis, oh. 11. v. 3. 

Our etymologists derive wall from the Latin Vallum : ^ and 



^ "Vallum dicebatur — Murus e terra ad fossce or am aggestus, crebris 
sudibus sive palis munitus — Itaque duse ejus partes, agger sive terra, et 
pali sive sudes. De etymo sic Varro, lib. iv. de L. L. : — Vallum, vel 
quod ea varicare riemo jjossit : — vel quod singula ibi extrema bacilla fur- 
cillata habent figuram literce v. Quae lectio si recta est, varicare hie 
erit vnep^aiveiv sive transg7'edi: quomodo varicare in vett. Glossis ex- 
ponitur. De etymo plane assentio. Quamvis enim, quia valli agger 
jactu aut aggestione tcrrse fieret, vallum et vallare non inepte deduci 
queant a Groeco /3aXXa>; tamen cum non omnis agger sit vallum, sed 
turn demum ,id nomen adipiscatur, cum munitus est vallis sive sudibus : 
quin a vallus vallum dicatur, dubitandum minirae censeo. Idem esse 
vallus, (\\\oi\ jpalus, sive sudis, ostendimus superius. Vallos autem aggeri 
iraponi solere, clare docet hie Vegetii locus, lib. 3. cap. viii. : — ' Primum 
in unius noctis transitum, et itiueris occupatione leviore, cum sublati 
cespites ordinautur, et aggerem faciunt, supra quern valli, hoc est, sudes, 
vel tribuli lignei, per ordinem digcruutur.' — Ilinc Animianus, lib. 31. — 
Vallo sudibus fossaque Jir)nato. — Queinadiuodum autcm vallum a vallus, 
jta vallus vTTOKopiaTtKcos a varus, quo lurcillas notari ostciisum suo loco." 
— Vossius. 



i 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 505 

not only the English word,, but the Anglo-Saxon peal also 
from the same. They seem to forget that the Latin is a mere 
modern language^ compared with the Anglo-Saxon. The 
Roman beginning (even their fable) is not, comparatively, at 
a great distance. The beginning of the Roman language we 
know ; and can trace its formation step by step. But the 
Northern origin is totally out of sight; is intirely and com- 
pletely lost in its deep antiquity. Besides, in deriving wall 
from Pilan, we follow the regular course of our whole lan- 
guage without the least contortion; and we arrive at once at 
a full and perfect meaning, and a clear cau'fee of the applica- 
tion of the word to the thing. But, if we refer wall to Val- 
lum, what have we obtained ? We must seek for the mean- 
ing of Vallum, and the cause of its application : and that we 
shall never find but in our own language : none of the Greek 
or Latin etymologists can help us to it : for Vallum itself is no 
other than our word TVal, with the addition of their Article 
UM (or the Greek ov) tacked to it. 

Tart (ceapc, asper) is the past participle of Typan, ex- 
acerbare, irritare, exasperare. To Tar, Tar-ed, Tar'dj 
TarL 

"Ye faderis nyle ye Teere youre sones to wraththe." 

Ephesies^ cap. 6. v. 4. 

" Faderis n} le ye Terre youi*e sones to indignacioun.'* 

Colocensis, cap. 3. ver. 21. 

"And like a dogge that is compell'd to fight 
Snatch at his master that doth tarre him on." 

King John, act 4. sc. 1. p. 14. 

" Two curres shal tame each other, pride alone 
Must TARRE the mastiffes on, as 'twere their bone." 

Troylus and Cressida, end of act 1. 

" Faith there has bene much to do on both sides : and the nation 
holds it no sinne, to tarre them to controuersie." — Hamlet, p. 263. 

Span. — For the etymology and meaning of this word, you 
may, if you chuse it, travel with others ^ to the German, the 



^ Vossius de Yit. Serin, lib. 3. cap. 17. '' Sjjannum Q,i spanna liabe- 
mus in Legibus Frisonum. Tit. xxii. de Dolg. lx.v. : ' Vuhius, quod 
longitudinem habeat quantum inter pollicem et compUcati indicis ar- 



506 or ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

French, the Italian, the Latin, or the Greek. But you may 
find them more readily at home : for the German Spanne, the 
old French Espan mentioned by Cotgrave, the Italian Spanna, 
and the Low Latin Spannum, together with the Dutch, the 
Danish, the Swedish, and the Islandic, are all, as well as the 
English word, merely the past tense and therefore past parti- 
ciple j'pan, ]*pon, of the Anglo-Saxon verb 8pman, To Spirij 
extendere, protrahere. 

" And eik his coit of goldin thredis bricht, 
Quhilk his moder him span." Douglas, booke 10. p. 349. 

" He will not give an inch of his will for a span of his thrift." 

Ba/s Scot. Frov. p. 291. 

Narrow "^Napp, Neapp, Neappe. The past participle 
Near J of Nyppian, coarctare, comprimere, contrahere. 
To Draw together , To Compress, To Contract, 

ticulum, spamtum non irapleat, iv. solid, componatur. Quod integrse 
spannce longitudinem habuerit, hoe est, quantum index et pollex extendi 
possunt, vi. solidis componatur.' Et cap. Ixvi. : ' Quod inter pollicem 
et medii digiti spannum longura fuerit, xiii. solidis componatur.' Item 
Fris. addit. Tit. iii. Ivi. : ' Si unius spanncB longitudinem habuerit.' 
Est vero spannus et spanna, id quod spitTiama antiquis : estque a Ger- 
manico spanne, quod a spannen, tendere : nisi malis esse ab Italico 
spandere pro Latino expandere. Nam pro ex ssepe initio ponunt s." 

Menage. — " Spanna. La lunghezza della mano aperta e distesa 
dalla estremita del dito mignolo a quella del grosso. Lat. palmus ma- 
jor. Gr. a-TTiBafxT]. GaU. empan. Dal Tedesco spann, che vale il 
palmo maggiore, che e costituito di dodici dita Geometriche. Ovvero 
dal Latino expalmus, expanmus, expammus, expannus, spannus; onde 
r antico Francese espan Cosi da impahjiiis, il Francese empan : da im- 
palmare, enpaumer. La prima oppinione par la vera. S' inganna il 
Monosini diducendo spanna da a-7n6afjir]. Lo seguita perb il Sr. Fer- 
rari." 

Junius — "Span, Spithama, dodra.ns, palmus major, intervallum inter 
pollicem et minimum digitum diductos ; estque duodenum digitorum, 
sive palmorum trium. A.-S. Span, j-ponn. It. Spanna. G. Espan. 
D. Spand. B. Span. Isl. Span vel Spon. Su. Span. Fr. Span. Spanna. 
M. Casaubonus petita vult ex ^niBaur], Spithama. V. eum p. 337. 
opusculi de Vet. Ling. Angl. Sed omnino videntur promanasse ex 
Teut. Spannen, tendere, extendere. Ipsum vero Spannen affine e&t 
Gr. ^TTOiv, trahere : quod attrahendo res extendantur." 

Sknmer — " Span &c. Omnia per contractionem, et conversionem 
M in N, et ejus reduplicationcm immediate, a Lat. et Gr. Spithama. 
Vel, si a Germanica origine pctere mallcs, a Teut. et Belg. Spannen, 
tendere, extendere. INIartinius autem Teut. Spannen a Lat. Expandere 
dcducit. AUudit Gr. STraco." 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 507 

[" To kerke the nakre, from God more farre, 

Has bene an olde-said sawe." Shepheards Calender, July^ 

Sharp — The past participle of Scyppan^ acuere. 

Eack ^ 

Rake [ A rack of hay, and a rick of hay, are the past par- 

RicK S-ticiple of KIKQA^j congerere, coUigere, To Col- 

Rich lectj To Draw together. To rake together. 

Riches^ 

A rake, the same participle ; it being the tool or instrument 
by which the Hay is collected. 

[" The sonnes must bee masters, the fathers, gaffers ; what we get 
together with a rake, they cast abroad with a forke." 

Mother Bomhie {by John Lily), act 1. sc. 3.] 

Rich and riches are the same participle. Throughout 
the language the different pronunciation of ch and ck is not 
to be regarded. Thus, what we pronounce rich and riches 
[tch], the French pronounce riche and richesse {sh)y and 
the Italians ricco and richezza {k). But it is the same 
word in the three languages : and it applies equally to any 
things, coUectedj accumulated, heaped, or (as we frequently ex- 
press it) RAKED together ; whether to money, cattle, lands, 
knowledge, &c. 

Sale "|is the past participle of 8ylan, dare, tradere. 

Handsel J To Sell. In our modern use of the word a 
condition is understood. Handsel is something given in 
hand. 

Harangue — In Italian Aringa, in French Harangue^ both 
from our language. 

This word has been exceedingly laboured by a very nume- 
rous band of etymologists ; and upon no occasion have their 
labours been more unsuccessfully employed. S. Johnson, as 
might be expected, has improved upon all his predecessors : 
and as he is the last in order of time, so is he the first in fatuity. 
He says — " Perhaps it comes from Orare, or Orationare, 
Oraner, ' Ar anger, HuranguerJ' ^' 

I will not trouble you with a repetition of the childish con- 
jectures of others, nor with the tedious gossiping talc of 
Junius. 



508 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Skinner briefly mentions a conjecture of Menage; and he 
spells the word properly^ in the old English fashion^ harang ; 
and not {a la Frangoise) harangue. 

The word itself is merely the pure and regular past parti- 
ciple, J^panj, of the Anglo-Saxon verb J^pmjan, To Sound , or 
To make a great sound. (As )^pino is also used.) And M. 
Caseneuve alone is right in his description of the word, when he 
says — " Harangue est un discours prononce avec contention 
DE voix.'^ 

So far has the manner of pronunciation changed with us, 
that, if the commencing aspirate before r was to be preserved, 
it was necessary to introduce an a between h and r; and 
instead of hrang, to pronounce and write the word " ha- 



" By theyr aduyse the kyng Agamemnowne 
For a trewse sent unto the towne 
For thirty dayes, and Priamus the kinge 
Without abode graunted his arynge." 

Lydgate, Aunclent Histories ^c. 

Yard ") Yard, in the Anglo- Sax. IJeapb, is the past 

Garden / tense and therefore past participle of the verb 

Ijypban, cingere, To Gird, To Surroundy To Inclose : and it 

is therefore applicable to any inclosed place; as Cowr^-YARD, 

Church-YARDj &c. 

Garden is the same past tense, with the addition of the 
participial termination en. I say, it is the same ; because 
the Anglo-Saxon D is pronounced indifferently either as our g 
or Y. 

Though it is not immediately to our present purpose, you 
will not be displeased, if I notice here, that a Girth is that 
which Girdeth or Gird'th any thing : that a Garter is a Girder ; 
that we have in Anglo-Saxon the diminutive Dypbel, or 
Girdle ; and that I suppose the verb Irypbelan, whose present 
participle would be Dypbelanb, encircling, surrounding; anb 
(for which we now employ ing) being the Anglo-Saxon and old 
English termination of the participles present : and that I 
doubt not that Dypbelanb, Dypblanb, Lyplanb, has become our 
modern Garland, 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 509 

The Italian Giardino and Ghirlanda,^ and the French Jardin 

and Guirlande have no other origin. 

Stage ^ Certainly these words do, not_, at first sight, appear 
to have the least connection with each other. And, 
till the clew is furnished, you may perhaps wonder 
why I have thus assembled them together. 



Stag • 

Stack 

Stalk 

Stay 

Stairs 

Story 

Stye 

Stile 

Stirrup 

Etage 



The verb Scijan, ascendere, to which we owe 
these words, is at present lost to the language ; but 
has not been long lost. For it survived that period 
of the language which we call Anglo-Saxon; and 
descended in very good and frequent use to that 
period of the language which we now call Old 
English : a name hereafter perhaps to be given by our suc- 
cessors to the language which we talk at present. 

Instances enough may be found of the use of this verb 
ftijan, from the time of Edward the third down even to the 
end of the fifteenth century. And though it has itself most 
strangely disappeared for the last two hundred years; it has 
still left behind it these its surviving members. 

In that old translation of the New Testament which was very 
much, though surreptitiously, circulated in the reign of Edward 
the third and afterwards, (and of which many other manuscripts 
remain, beside the curious one which you have given to me) we 
have seen the word perpetually employed in Matthew, Mark, 
Luke, John, in the Epistles, in the Acts, and in the Revela- 
tions. Let us turn to a few instances. 

" Anoon Ihesu constreynide the disciplis to steige in to a boot." — 
MattJieu, ch. 14. v. 22. 

" The whiche seyden by spirit to Poul, that he shulde not stie to 
lenisalem." — Dedis, ch. 21. v. 4. 

" We preiden, and thei that weren of that place, that he shulde not 
stye to lerusalem." — Dedis, ch. 21. v. 12. 



^ " Ghirlanda (says Menage) e voce presa peravventura dal partefice 
futuro passivo del verbo (/kirlare, non usato, che venga da girare, dice 
il Castelvetro. E com certissima. Da gyrus, girus, gnulns, girulare, 
girlare, gldrlare, gliirlandus, gJdrlanda.'" — Cosa certissima ! — Ut pLanc 
homines non, quod dicitur, XoyiKu ^wa; sed ludicra et ridenda qutedam 
ncurospasmata esse videantur. 



510 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" But whanne thou shalt be bedun to feest, go and sitte doun in the 
laste place, that whanne he shal come that bad thee to feest, he seie to 
thee, frende steige heiger." — Inike, ch. 14. v. 10. 

" The firste vols that 1 herde, as of a trumpe, spekynge with me, 
seiynge, sty up hidur." — Apocalips, ch. 4. v. 1. 

*' Forsoth Ihesu took twelue disciplys, and seide to hem, lo we stien 
to lerusalem." — LuJce, ch. 18. v. 31. 

" To ech of us grace is gouen up the mesure of the gyuyng of Crist, 
for whiche thing he seith, he steigynge in to heig, led caitifte caitif." — 
Ephesyes, ch. 4. v. 7, 8. 

" Ihesu was baptisid of lohn in lordan, and anoon he stiynge up of 
the watir."— Jidtr^, ch. 1. v. 9, 10. 

"Lo we STEIGBN to Icrusalcm." — Mattheu, ch. 20. v. 18. 

" Ihesu forsothe seynge companyes steigide in to an hil." — Mattheu, 
ch. 5. V. 16. 

"And the thornes steigeden up and strangliden it." — Mai'k, ch. 4. 
v.'7. 

"And whanne it is sowun it steigeth in to a tree." — Ibid. v. 32. 

" What ben ye troblid, and thougtis steigen up in to youre hertis ? " 
— Luke, ch. 24. v. 38. 

" Stiege up at this feest dai, but I shal not stie up at this feest day, 
for my tyme is not yit fillid. Whan he had seide these thingis he . 
dwelte in Galile. Forsothe as hise britheren stieden up, thanne and 
he steiede up at the feest dai." — loJm, ch. 7. v. 8, 9, 10. 

" Nyle thou touche me, for I haue not yit stied to my fadh*. For- 
sothe go to my britheren and seie to hem, I stie to my fadir." — Ibid, 
ch. 20. V. 17. 

" And whanne he steig into a litil ship, hise disciplis sueden him." — 
Mattheu, ch. 8. v. 23. 

But we need not turn to any more places in this little book ; 
where the word is used at least ninety times. 

The same word is constantly employed by Gower, Chaucer, 
Lydgate, Fabian, Sir T. More, &c. &c. 

" And up she stighe, and faire and welle 
She drofe forth by chare and whelle 
Aboue in the ayre amonge the skies." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 105. p. Ir col. 2. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 511 

" And or Christ went out of this erthe here 
And STIGHED to heuyn, he made his testament." 

Balade to K. Henry IV. fol. 349. p. 1. col. 2. 

" Beryne clepid a maryner, and bad him sty on loft, 
And weyte aftir our four shippis aftir us doith dryue ; 
For it is but grace of God, yf they be alyue. 
A maryner anoon wyth that, right as Beryn bad, 
Styed into the top castell, and brought hym tydings glad." 

Merchaunts 2^ Tale, Urry's Edit. p. 607. 



" Joseph might se 



The Angell stye aboue the sonne beme." 

Jjyfe of our Lady, By Lydgate, p. 103. 

" Then king Philip seing the boldnesse of the Fleraminges, and how 
little they feared him, tooke counsayle of his lordes, how he might cause 
them to descende the hylle, for so longe as they kepe the hyl, it was 
ieoperdous and perelous to stie towarde them." — Fabiart's Chronicle, 
vol. 2. p. 265. 

"But like the hell hounde thou waxed full furious, expressyng thy 
malice when thou to honour stied." — Ibid. p. 522, 

" And so he toke Adam by the ryght hande and styed out of hell up 
in to the ay re." — NicJiodemus Gos^ell, ch. 16. 

" The ayre is so thycke and heuy of moysture that the smoke may not 
stye up." — Diue-8 and Pauper, 1st Comm. cap. 27. 

"But lord how he doth thynk hym self full wele 
That may set once his hande uppon her whele. 
He holdeth fast : but upwarde as he stieth 
She whippeth her whele about, and there he lyeth." 

Sir T. More' 8 Works, (1557). 

[ " But when my muse, whose fethers, nothing flitt, 
Doe yet but flagg and lowly learne to fly, 
"With bolder wing shall dare alofte to sty 
To the last praises of this Faery Queene." 

Spenser's Verses to the Earle of Essex. 

" The beast, impatient of his smarting wound. 
And of so fierce and forcible despight. 
Thought with his wiiiges to stye above the ground. 
But his late wounded wing unserviceable found." 

Faerie Queen e, book 1. cant. 2. st. 25. 



513 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART IT. 

' — " And though no reason may apply 



Salve to your sore, yet love can higher stye 

Then reasons reach." Faerie Qtieene, book 3. cant. 2, st. 36. 

" For he so swift and nimble was of flight, 
That from this lower tract he dar'd to stte 
Up to the clowdes." Spenser'' s MuiopotmoSy st. 6. 

" A bird all white, well feathered on each wing, 
Hereout up to the throne of gods did flie, 
And all the way most pleasant notes did sing, 
Whilst in the smoake she unto heaven did stie." 

Spenser, Visions of Bellay. 

" That was ambition, rash desire to sty, 
And every linck thereof a step of dignity." 

Faerie Qiceene, book 2. cant. 7. st. 46.^] 

If more were necessary to confirm the claim of ftijan to a 
place in our language, mucli more might be drawn from a 
variety of quarters ; but I suppose the foregoing instances to be 
amply sufficient : and you may perhaps think them too many. 

Being now in possession of this verb, let us proceed to its 
application. And first for stage. 

1. We apply stage to any elevated place, where comedians 
or mountebanks, or any other performers exhibit; and to 
many other scafibldings or buildings raised for many other 
purposes. As, 

" At the said standarde in Chepe was ordeyned a sumptuouse stage, 
in the whiche were sette dyuers personages in rych apparell." — Fabiauj 
vol. 2. p. 334. 

2. We apply stage to corporeal progress. As, — At this 
Stage of my journey — (Observe, that travelling was formerly 



^ [On this passage, T. Warton says ; — " The lexicographers inform us, 
that STY signifies to soar, to ascend. Sty occurs often. This word 
occurs in Chaucer's Test, of Love, p. 480. edit. Urry — *Ne steyrs to 
stey one is none : ' — where it is used actively, to lift one up." 

Mr. Warton mistakes the passage ; being misled by Chaucer's 
spelling. Stey is not here used actively. One is here thus written for 
on or upon, 

Chaucer does not mean — There are no stairs to sty one ; but — there 
are no stairs to sty on, to ascend upon.'] 



CH, IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 513 

termed ^'^steiging; " to Jerusalem, or any other place) — At this 
Stage of the business. — At this Stage of my life. — As, 

'•' And thou young and wourscliipful child, quhais age 
Is to my youthede in the nerrest stage." 

Douglas, booke 9. p. 285. 

3. We apply stage to degrees of mental advancement in or 
towards any knowledge, talent^ or excellence. As, 

" Bot Turnus stalwart hardy hye curage, 
For all this fere dymynist neuir ane stage." 

Douglas, booke 10, p. 325. 

4. And besides the above manners of applying this word 
stage, our ancestors likewise employed it where the French 
still continue to use it : for their word Estage, Etage, is merely 
our English word stage ; though, instead of it, upon this occa- 
sion we now use story. 

" Architriclynus, that is, prince in the hous of thre stag is." 

loon, ch. 2. V. 8. 
" Sotheli sum yong man, Euticus bi name, sittynge on the wyndow, 
whanne he was dreynt with a greuous sleep, Poul disputynge long, he 
led bi sleep felde doun fro the thridde stage or sopyng place." 

Dedis, ch. 20. v. 9. 

For stage, in this last passage, the modern translation puts 
loft; which (as we have already seen) is an equivalent par- 
ticiple. 

Now I suppose that in all these applications of it, you at 
once perceive that ascent (real or metaphorical) is always 
conveyed by the word stage : which is well calculated to con- 
vey that meaning; being itself the regular past participle of 
j'tijan. 

Stag is the same past participle. And the name is well 
applied to the animal that bears it ; ^ his raised and lofty head 

^ [" Cervus, or Deer, &c. The species of tliis genus are seven, enu- 
m.eratcd by Linnaeus, &c. 

" 1. The Camelopardalis, or Giraffe, &c. The fore legs are not much 
longer than the hind legs ; but the shoulders are of a vast length, which 
gives the disproportionate height between the fore and hind })arts : &c. 
The latest and best description of this extraordinary qun(h'upcd is 

'2 L 



514 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

being the most striking circumstance at the first sight of him.^ 
Thence the poet^s well- chosen description : 

" When as those fallow deer, and huge-hauncht stags that graz'd 
Upon her shaggy heaths, the passenger amaz'd. 
To see their mighty herds with high-palm'd head to threat 
The woods of o'ergrown oaks ; as though they meant to set 
Their horns to th' others heights." Poly-olbion, song 12. 

" E cervi con la fronte alta e superha." 

Orlando Fm\ cant. 6. st. 22. 

The swiftness of these animals; the order which they are 
said to observe in swimming ; and the sharpness of their horns ; 
these three distinct properties have induced Minshew, Junius^ 



given in the 16th number of a work intitled, 'A Description of the 
uncommon Animals and Productions in the Cabinet and Menagerie 
of His Serene Highness the Prince of Orange, by Mr. Vosmaer, &c.' 
All the accounts we have of the giraffe agree in representing its hind 

quarters as about 2^ feet lower than its withers, &c The giraffe 

here described, which Mr. Gordon, who dissected it, says was the 
largest he had ever seen, was 15 feet 4 inches Ehinland measure (about 
15 feet 10 inches English) from the ground to the top of its head, &c. 
M. Vaillant asserts that he has seen several which were at least 17 feet 
high : and M. Vosmaer declares, that he has been assured by some very 
respectable inhabitants of the Cape, that they had seen and killed 
giraffes which, including the horns, were 22 Ehinland feet in height, 
&c. &c. 

" 2. The Elk, Alces, or Moose Deer, &c. This is the bulkiest animal 
of the deer kind, being sometimes 17 hands high, &c. In Siberia they 
are of a monstrous size, particularly among the mountains, &c. 

" 3. The Elaphus or Stag, &c. : when pursued they easily clear a 
hedge or a pale fence of six feet high, &c.'* 

Encyclopedia Britannica, Edit. 1797. vol. 4. p. 300.] 

■^ [A HORSE is so denominated from his obedience and tractableness. 
In the Anglo-Saxon hejian and heojian is To Rear and To Obey. (In 
the same manner Audire and Axoveii/, signify both To Hear^ and To 
Obey.) 

jpejiinjman means obedient : so do hejaj'um, and hijij^ume, and hyjij'um. 

)?irif umian, hyjij-ian, and hyjijf umian, and heofij'umian mean To Obey. 
JOyjij^umnej^j'e, obedience. 

j^ojij'lice means obediently. 

I^eopj- and hopjr (Anglioe horse) is the past participle of ))yjapan. 
To Obey.'] [But see Eoss in Meidenger^s Wdrtei'bnch. Outzen considers 
Horse and Ross as words of distinct origin. — Glossar. der Friesischen 
SpracTie. Yet Alfred calls the Walross jjo/ij'-hpajl. — Ed.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 515 

and Skinner to attempt respectively three different derivations 
of STAG. In wliicli I tliink tliey fail.^ 

Stack is the same past participle (pronouncing k for g). 
Junius supposes it to be the same word as stake. — "Scacaj' 
A.-Saxonibus erant stipites : atque inde fortasse cumulus 
fosnij alia'TU'mque rerum, stack dictus est : Quod perticam 
longam acuminatamque alte satis terra infigebant, circa 
quam foenum undiquaque congestum in metam sequaliter 
assurgeret.'^ 

But how would this notion of the word do for a stack of 
chimnies ? I fear he was a worse farmer than etymologist : for 
I do not believe that a stack of hay or of wood was ever so 
Raised by any one, in any country, at any time. 

Stalk, applied by us at present only to plants, I believe 
to be the same participle ; ^ and perhaps it should be written 
STAWK (as we pronounce it) or stak (the a, as formerly, 
broad) : and indeed the l may have been introduced to give 
the broad sound to our modern a. This however is only my 
conjecture, being unable otherwise to account for the intro- 
duction of L into this word, whose meaning is evident. This 
etymology, I think, is strengthened by the antient application 



^ Junius says — " Stagg. Cervus. Fortasse est a ^r^Lxoi, ordine in- 
cedo. In cervis certe gregatim prodeuntibus mirum ordinem depre- 
hendunt quibus ea res curse. Praecipue taraen adrairabilis est ordo, 
quern tenent raaria transnatantes. Maria tranant gregatim nantes por- 
recto ordiiie (inquit Plin. N. H. viii. 32.) et capita imponentes prsece- 
dentium clunibus, vicibusque ad terga redeuntes. Hoc maxime notatur 
a Cilicia Cyprum trajicientibus. Nee vident terras, sed in odorem earum 
natant." 

Skinner says — " Stag Minsh. deflectit a '2Teixoi>i curro : sed 'S.reLxoi 

nusquam curro ; sed Eo ordine^ et Eo exponitur. Nescio an ab A.-S. 

Srican. Tent. Stechen, Steck&n, pungere. Quia sc. Cornua acuta 

habet quibus pungere aptus natus est." 

^ [" Like as the seeded field greene grasse first showes, 
Then ^rom greene grasse into a stalke doth spring, 
And from a stalke into an eare forth-growes, 
Which earc the frutefull graine doth shortly bring ; 
And as in season due the husband mowes 
The waving lockes of those faire yeallow heares. 
Which bound in sheaves, and Liyd in comely rowes. 
Upon the naked fields in stalkes he reares." 

Spenser, JRuines of Rome.'] 
2 l 2 



516 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

of the word stalk to the rounds, or steps, or stairs of a 
ladder. 

" He made him ladders three 
To clymben by the ronges, and the stalkes 
Into the tubbes hongyng by the balkes." 

lers Tale, fol. 14. p. 1. col. 3. 



It is not impossible that the l may have been introduced 
here, for the sake of the rime to balkes : it certainly is a liberty 
often taken both by Gower and Chaucer, and by our other 
antient rimers. 

As the verb j'fcijan was variously pronounced and variously 
written, steig, stye, stie ; some sounding and writing the g ; 
some changing it to y ; and some sinking it altogether j so 
consequently did its participles vary. 

We have already noticed stag, stage, stack, stalk ; in which 
the G hard, or the g soft, or its substitute k, is retained : and 
we must now observe the same past participle of j'ti^an, without 
either g or k ; viz. stay. 

" Ane port thare is, quham the Est fludis has 

In mariere of ane bow maid boule or hay. 

With rochis set forgane the streme full stay 

To brek the salt fame of the seyis stoure^^ 

Douglas, booke 3. p. 86. 
" Portus ab Eoo jfluctu curvatur in arcura, 

Objects salsa spumant aspergine cautes. 

Ipse latet : gemino demittunt brachia muro 

Turriti scopuli, refugitque a littore templum." 

The Glossarist of Douglas, in explanation, says — " Stay, 
steep : as we say, Scot, — A stay brae, i. e. a high bank of 
difficult ascent : from the verb Stay, to stop or hinder ; because 
the steepness retards those who climb it ; as the L. say, iter 
impedituniy loca impedita. — Or, from the Belg. Stegigh, praj- 
ruptus." 

I think the Glossarist wanders. — " Rochis full stay," are 
— very high rocks. And a " stay brae/^ is a high bank. 
Without any allusion to, or adsignification of, the difficulty of 
ascent. Nor is there any word, either in the original or in the 
translation, which alludes to delay or iter impeditum. Nor 
does it appear that they were prceruptcB cautes. But these 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 517 

objecim cautes are afterwards called Turriti scopuli. And the 
purpose of this description is barely to account for the port 
itself being hidden : ipse latet : for which purpose their height 
was important. But the Glossarist was at a loss for the mean- 
ing of the epithet stay ; and therefore he introduces difficult 
ascent, and prasruptus ; giving us our choice of two derivations ; 
viz. either from our English verb To Stay, i. e. to delay; or 
from the Dutch Stegigh. But neither of these circumstances 
are intended here to be conveyed by the poet : and Douglas 
knew too well both his author and his duty, to introduce a fo- 
reign and impertinent idea, merely to suit his measure or his 
rime. — Stay means merely rteiT, raised, high, lofty. 

Stair, in the Anglo-Saxon, rtsejeji, and still in the Dutch 
Steiger, I must not at present call a participle (whatever I may 
venture to do hereafter ;) for fear of exciting a premature dis- 
cussion. Stair means merely an Ascender. The change from 
yXee^^efi to stair, has been in the usual course of the lan- 
guage. First the g gave place to the softer y, and has since 
been totally omitted. Chaucer wrote it steyer; and the verb 
To Steig he wrote To Stey. 

"Depe in thys pynynge pytte with wo I lygge ystocked, with chaynes 
lynked of caie and tene. It is so bye from thens I Ij^e and the com- 
mune ertli, tlier ne is cable in no lande maked, that myght stretche to me, 
to drawe me into blysse, no steyers to stey is none." 

Testament of Zoue, fol. 203. p. 2. col. 2. 

Fabian, in the reign of Henry 7. continues to write it in the 
same manner. 

*'Then the saied 11 dead corses were diawen downe the steyers 
without pitie." — Chronicle, vol. 2. p. 294. 

" At Bedforde tliis yere at the kcping of a Shire daie, by the fallyng of 
a steyer, wer xviii murdered and slaine." — Ibid. p. 434. 

[" Others number their yeares, tlieir houres, their minutes, and step to 
age by staires : thou onely hast thy yeares and times in a cluster, being 
olde before thou remembrest thou Avast young." 

Endimion {by John Lily) act 4. sc. 3.] 

Story, which the French denominate Estage, E'tage/ 



^ "Nicot dans son Dictionnaivc, et Caninius dans son Canon des 
Dialectes, le derivent ires vcritablement de aj^y-q. 2T(yT), crxfya, ste- 
gagium, Etage. Ou bien : stega, Estege, Estage.*^ — Menage. 



518 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

and which (as we have seen in a foregoing instance) was 
formerly in England also called a stage^ is merely — ^tayery, 
Stayery, (the a broad) Stawry or Story, i. e. A set of Stairs. 
As Shrubbery, Rookery, &c. a number or collection of shrubs ; a 
number or collection of rooks, &c. The termination ery, for 
this purpose, to any word, is a modern adoption of our language, 
and the term therefore comparatively modern : but the meaning 
is clear ; and the derivation at least unrivalled.-^ 

Sty, on the eye. Skinner says well — " tumor palpebrse 
phlegmonodes, vel ab A.-S. Stijan, ascendere; quia sc. con- 
tinuo crescit, nisi per medicamenta cohibeatur." He adds 
injudiciously — '^ vel a Gr. ^rca, lapillus, propter duritiem, ut 
auguratur Mer. Cas.^^ — The name of this complaint in the 
Anglo-Saxon is rtijenb or rtiraDb, ascendens, rising up; 
the present participle of the verb rtiran. Our ancestors 
therefore wanted not, and were not likely to borrow from the 
Greeks the name of a malady so common amongst themselves. 

Sty for hogs, in the Anglo-Saxon rtije, is the past partici- 
ple of rti^an . It denotes a Raised pen for those filthy animals, 
who even with that advantage can scarcely be kept in tole- 
rable cleanliness. The Italian Stia is the same word ; of which 
Menage was aware; though he knew not its meaning. — 
" E vocabol Gottico. Sfeyra dicono gli Suezzesi per signifi- 
care stalla da porci ; et Hogstie, gli Inghilesi." "Which makes 
it the more extraordinary, that, with his good understanding. 
Skinner should imagine that it might be derived — " a stipando ; 
quia sc. in eo quasi stipanturJ^ 

A STILE, in Anglo-Saxon rtijel, the diminutive of Sty. 

Stirrup, in Anglo-Saxon rtix-nap. In the derivation of 
this word our etymologists (with the exception of Minshew) 
could not avoid concurrence. It is a mounting -rope ; a rope by 
which to mount. 



^ •' A story, contignatio, nescio an a Teut. JSteicer, fulcrum ; vel a 
iiostro Store, q. d. locus ubi supellex et reliqua omnia bona asservantur ; 
vel a Px'Ig-. Schuere, hoiicuni, granarium ; vel fort, quasi Stower vel 
Stoivry ab A.-S. Srop, \oc\\%.^^~ -Skinner. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 519 

[" The STIRRUP was called so in scorne, as it were a stay to get up, 
being derived of the old English word sty, which is to get up, or 
mounte." Spense?''s View of the State of Ireland^ 

edit. 1805. vol. 8. p. 391.J 

The Low-Latin words Astraba and Strepa, and the Spanish 
Est7'ibOj are manifestly taken from onr language by a corrupt 
pronunciation of ftijpap or j^tijiap.^ 

Gain — i. e. Any thing acquired. It is the past participle of 
jepan, of the verb Ije-piniiaD, acquirere. This word has 
been adopted from us into the rrench_, Italian and Spanish 
languages : of which circumstance Menage and Junius were 
aware; Skinner not concurring. 

Pain — We need not have recourse to Poena and TIolvt). It 
is the past participle of our own Anglo-Saxon verb Pinan, 
cruciare. 

Rain — In the Anglo-Saxon Rse^n, is the past participle of 
KirNQ/VN, pluere. As the Latin Pluvia'is the unsuspected 
past participle formed from Pluvij the antient past tense of 
Pluere. 

" In Helies time heauen was closed 
That no raine ne ronne." — Fisio?i of P. Ploughman, fol. 72. p. 2. 

^ Strain is the past tense and therefore past 
^ >- participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb Stjiynan, 

Tj ^ \ gignere, procreare_, acquirere. 

[" J^u he leopobe ni^an hunb ^eapa on j>8ejie pojiman 
ylbe J>ij-j-epe populbe, anb beajin IreSTRINDe be hif 



^ " Etiam inter ilia, ubi non solum forma exterior, sed res ipsa vete- 
ribus fuit incognita, reponi debet instrumentum illud ferreum ab equi 
lateribus utrimque dependens, cui innituntur atque insistunt equitantium 
pedes. Ea enira veteribus fuisse incognita, recte jam ante duo secula 
monitum Johanni Tortellio Aretino. Novo igitur huic invento novum 
quaercndura nomen fuit. 

" Strepa dicitur ferreum illud instnimentum cui insistunt pedes equi- 
tantium. A Strepa est llispanicura Estribo : e, more ejus gentis et 
Gallicae, pr?emisso. Ac indc etiam Astraba'' 

Vossius lie Fit. Serm. lib. 1. cap. 7. and lib. 2. cap. 17. 



520 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Tcbebban Guan." — ^Ifric. de Veteri Testamento, in L^Isle's 
Saxon Monuments, p. 5. 

"Ac Abam jeSTRINDG aepteji Abelef f leje o'Sejine 
f unu." — Idid. p. 6. 
" Op Jjam STRGNrrG com ]?8et f cucu be lap."— /^ic?. 

'' N u f ej^ up peo boc be Noep oppppmje p3X: hip 
puna jeSTRINDON tpa anb huDb peopontij puna." — 
Ibid. p. 7. 

" Ipaac J>a jeSTRYNDG Gpau anb lacob."— /^i^.p.9.] 

" I hate the whole strain." 

JB. and Fletcher', Maid's Traced?/, act 4. 
" Does this become our strain ? " Ibid. act. 5. 

" As William by descent come of the concLiieror's strain." 

Foly-olbimi, song 24. 
" Thus farre can I praise him ; hee is of a noble strain, of approued 
valour, and confirm'd honesty." — MucJi Ado about Nothing, p. 107. 
[" The STRAINS of mans bred out into baboon and monkey." 

Thnon of Athens, p. 82. col. 2.] 

Chaucer uses the same word in the same meaning, writing it 

STREEN and STRENE. 

" For Gode it wote, that children ofte been 
Unlyke her worthy elders, hem before : 
Bounte cometh all of God, and not of the streen 
Of which they ben engendred and ibore." 

Clerke of Oxenfordes Tale, fol. 46. p. 1. col. 1. 
" For bycause al is corrumpable. 
And fayle shulde successyon, 
Ne were their generacioun 
Our sectes strene for to saue 
Whan father or mother arne in graue." 

Rom. of the Rose, fol. 143. p. 1. col. 2. 
[" And them amongst, her glorie to commend. 
Sate goodly Temperance in garments clene, 
And sacred lleverence yborne of heavenly strene." 

Faerie Qaee)ie, book 5. cant. 9. st. 32. 
" For that same beast was bred of hellish strene. 
And long in darksome Stygian den upbrought." 

Ibid, book 6. cant. 6. st. 9.1 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 521 

Douglas, instead of the past tense as a participle_, uses the 
past participle with the participial termination ed ; stryned, 

STRYN^D_, STRYND. 

" My fader than reuoluing in his mynd 
The discent of fore faderis of our strynd." 

Douglas, booke 3. p. 70. 
" My son Pallas, this young lusty syre 
Exhort I wald to tak the stere on hand, 
Ne war that of the blude of this ilk land 
Admyxt standis he, takand sum strynd 
Apoun his moderis syde, of Sabyne kynd." 

Douglas, booke 8. p. 260. 

" But an an hyjia hpylc beajin hsebbe. Jjonne ly me 
leopajt: J>aet hit ^anje on J>8et STRYNGD on j^a paepneb 
healpe."— ^//re^^5 Will. 

T' are is nothing extraordinary in this use of the participle 
STR.-.1N or strynd as a substantive. The past participle get, 
i. e. Begotten, is used in the same manner. 

" And I thy blude, thy get, and dochter schene." 

Douglas, booke 10. p. 313. 

" Quhare that his douchter, amang buskis ronk. 

In derne sladis and mony sloggy slonk, 

Wyth milk he nurist of the beistis wilde, 
• And wyth the pappys fosterit he hys ch^'ld : 

Of sauage kynd stude meris in that forest. 

Oft tymes he thare breistis mylkit and prest 

Within the tendir lippis of his get." — Ibid, booke 11. p. 384. 

And though we do not at present use get as a past participle, 
for Begotten ; it was so used formerly. 

'•For of all creatures that euer were get and borne 
This wote ye wel, a woman was the best." 

Chaucer, Praise of Women, fol. 292. p. 1. col. 1. 

What is commonly called a Cock^s stride is corruptly so 
pronounced^ instead of a cock's strynd. 

Skinner says well — " A cock's stride, vel, ut melius in agro 
Line, efferunt, a cock's strine : ab A.-S. Sqimb." 

Yester-day, Yester-nightj Yester-even : and Dryden, with 
great propriety, says also " Yester-sun.'^ 



532 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

[" To love an enemy, the only one 

Eemaining too, whom YESTEE-sun beheld 
Must'ring her charms, and rolling, as she past 
By every squadron, her alluring eyes ; 
To edge her champions' swords, and urge my ruin." 

Don SehastiaTiy act 2. sc. 1.] 

Yester-c?«2/ is in the Anglo-Saxon Irept^an bsej. De-ftjian 
is the past tense and past participle of De-j^tjiinan^ To Acquire, 
To Get, To Obtain. But a day is not gotten or obtained, till it 
is passed: therefore jej'fcjian bsej is equivalent to the passed 
day. Ijej'tjian, Yestran_, Yestern/ Yester. 

The Latin Etymologists and Menage^ with whom Junius and 
Skinner concur_, would persuade us that hestern-w5 is derived 
from p^^e? or €%fe. And some of them from H<Breo — " nempe 
quia dies hesternus hseret hodierno.^^ But this reason would 
suit as well the subsequent as the preceding day : and therefore 
the term^ leaving no distinction between them, would not be 
qualified for the office assigned to it. The Latin hestern-w5 
is also of our Northern origin : Ghestern, Hestern. 

Bruise — according to the constant practice of the lan- 
guagCj by the change of the characteristic letter, is the past 
tense and past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb Bjiypan, con- 
terere; according to our antient English, To Brise. [French, 
Briser.'] 

" Then they rashed together as it had beene thunder, and Sir Hemison 
brised his speare upon Sir Tristram." 

Historie of Trince Arthur, 2d part, ch. 83. 

" Whan a tree is newely sette men water it, and sette stakes and poles 
about to strength it ayenst the wyndes blastes and for stoi:jnes, it sholde 
ellys BRYSE it or breke it and felle it adowne." 

JDiues and Pauper, 1st Comm. cap. 61. 

" The asse sawe the angell and fledde asyde for drede of the angels 
swerde, and bare Balaam ayenst the walle, and brosed his fote." 

Ibid. 5th Comm. cap. 15. 

Bruit — means (something) spread abroad, divulged, di- 



^ In German, Gestern : mX^wich., Glstereu. [Wachter says, " Gothis 
gistradagis est eras, Matth. vi. 30 : quod miratur Junius." — Ed.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 523 

spersed} It is the past tense and past participle^ formed in 
the accustomed manner, of the Anglo-Saxon verb Bpittian, 
Bjiyttian, distribuere, dispensare : In English also To Brit, 

" To BRIT, apud Salopienses, to divulge and spread abroad." 

Ba7/'s Preface to North Country Words. 

Truce — is formed in the usual manner. It is the regular 
past tense and therefore past participle of the Anglo-Saxon 
verb Tpippan, fidem dare_, To pledge one^s Faith, To plight 
one's Troth. The French Treve (formerly written Tresves) is 
the same word. 

" He therfbre sent hym in ambassade to the sayd EoUo to requyre a 
TREWE or TREWSE for thre monethes." — Fabian, parte 6. ch. 131. 

" Under coloure of a fayned trewce they were taken and caste the 
moste parte of theym in pryson." — Ibid, parte 7. ch. 241. 

" Was proclaimed throughe the citee and also the hooste, a daie of 
lenger trewes." 

"The daie of expiration of the truewes opproched." 

Fabiany Lewes XL p. 484. 

Full — is the past tense_, used as a past participle, of the verb 
Fyllan, To Fill. And may at all times have its place supplied 
by Filled.'' 



^ [" Brother, we will proclaime you out of hand. 

The BRUIT thereof will bring you many friends." 

Sd Fart of Henry FI. p. 167. col. 1. 
Malone says — " The word bruit is found in Bullokar's English Ex- 
positor, 8vo, 1616, and is defined^* A reporte spread abroad.' " 
So (says Steevens) in Preston's Cambyses ; 

" Whose many acts do fly 

By BRUIT of fame." 
" The French word bruit (says Mr. Whalley) was very early made a 
denizen of our language. 

" ' Behold the noise of the bruit is come.' — Jeremiah, 10. 22."] 
^ [The Italian folla ; whence the French foulle. 
Menage says — " Folla, dal Lat. inusitato falla, originato da fullus, 
detto per Fidlo, Fnllonis. Quindi dcriva il Francese foulle. Vedi 
Fouller nelle Origini Francesi." Where may be seen the foolish deri- 
vations of Caseneuve and Menage] 



524 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Stum — is the past tense and past participle of 8cyman, 
fumare, To Steam. It mesius famigated, steamed} 

" Stum, in the wine trade, denotes the unfermented juice of the 
grape, after it has been several times racked off and separated from its 
sediment. The casks are, for this purpose, well matched or fumigated 
with brimstone every time, to prevent the liquor from fermenting, as it 
would otherwise readily do, and become wine." 

Encyclop. JBritannica. Art. stum. 

Lust — The past tense and past participle of the verb Lypcan, 
cupere^ To List. It was not formerly, as now, confined only to 
a desire of one kind ; but was applied generally to any thing 
wished, or desired, or liked. 

" And of the myracles of these crownes twey, 
Saynt Ambrose in his preface luste to sey." 

Seconde Nonnes Tale, fol. 57. p. 2. col. 2. 

" Faire Sir, said Sir Tristram, to drinke of that water haue I a lust." 

Hist, of Frince Arthur, 2d part, ch. 87. 

Dung (or, as it was formerly written^ dong) by the change 
of the characteristic letter y to o, or to u, is the past tense and 
therefore past participle of the verb Dynjan, dejicere. To Cast 
down. 

" And Dowel shal ding him down,f and distroi his might." 

Vision of Fierce Ploughman, pass. 11. fol. 50. p. 2. 



^ " Stum of wine, Sic appellatur, ni fallor, Mustum statim quam 
primum expressum est, validissimo dolio circulis ferreis munito usque 
ad summum, nullo spiritibus loco vacuo relicto, inditum seu potius in- 
fartum, ne sc. posset effervescere et defsecari : hoc vinis fere vietis et 
evanidis immissum novum ipsis vigorem et spiritum, instar fermenti, 
conciliat ; et, raodo confestim bibantur, palata apprime commendat. 
Nescio an a Belg. Stom, Teut. Stumm, mutus, q. d. vinum mutum ; 
quia nunquam efferbuit. Vel potius a Belg. Stomp, Teut. Stumpf, 
hebes, obtusus (i. e.) vinum obtusum ; quia sc. quoniam nulla fermenta- 
tione depuratum est, spiritus, non ut vina setate def^ecata, puros vividos 
et expeditos, sed hebetes et languidos habet." — Skinner. 

Lye says — " Stum, vox ccnopolis satis nota, Su. Stum. Detruncatum 
volunt ex Lat. Mustum.'" 

' [In Malone's edition of Shakespeare are inserted Poems on Shake- 
speare, and in the 200th page of the 1st part of the 1st volume, it is 
thus written : 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 525 

[" My fore grandsyr, hecht Fyn Mac Cowl, 
That DANG the deuil and gart him yowll, 
The skj'is rained whan he wald scowll, 
And trublit all the air." 

Interlude of the BrokJiis, Scotch Poem about the 
time of James the 4th. 
" Many strong eddies, gusts, and counterblasts : whereby we are 
hoisted sometime to heaven with a billow of presumption, and dung 
downe againe with abysse of despaire to helward." 

Divers Ancient Monuments in the Saxon Tongue: Published by 
William L'lsle of WHburgham, Esquire to the King's body. 
Printed by E. G. for Francis Eglesfield, 1638. Preface, p. 3] 

Dung, or dong_, therefore means Dejectuniy and in that 
meaning only is applied to Stercus. 

" And at the west gate of the toun (quod he) 
A carte ful of donge there shalt thou se." 

Tale of the Nonnes Priest, fol. 99. p. 1. col. 1. 
" All other thynges in respecte . of it, I repute (as sainct Paule saith) 
for DONG." — Sir T. More, Lyfe of Pycus, p. 20. 

[ " Who shall let me now 

On this vile body from to wreak my wrong, 
And make his carkas as the outcast dong." 

Faerie Queene, book 2. cant. 8. st. 28.] 

Turd (or_, as it was formerly written_, Topb and toord) is 
the past tense and past participle of the verb Tipian, To Feed 
upon. 

[" Then hath she an haukes eye. 
that I were a partridge head. 



" His (meaning Marlowe's) Hero and Leander, was published in 
quarto, 1598, by Edward Blount, as an imperfect work. The fragment 
ended with this line — 

'Dang'd down to hell her loathsome carriage.' 
Chapman completed the Poem, and published it as it now appears, in 
1600." 

" Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell : 
Hark, now I hear them, — ding — dong, bell. 

(Burden, ding — dong, bell.)" 
In Malone's edition of Shakespeare, vol. 1. part 2. The Tempest, 
p. 27.] 



526 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

To what end ? 

That she might tire with her eyes on my countenance." 

My das {by John Lily\ act 1. sc. 2. 

" Thou dotard, thou art woman-TYR'D, unroosted 
By thy dame Partlet here." Winter's Tale, act 2. sc. 3. 

" And like an emptie eagle 

Tyre on the flesh of me and of my sonne." 

2,dPart of Henry FT. p. 149, col. 2. 

-" I greeve myselfe, 

To thinke, when thou shalt be disedg'd by her 

That now thou tyrest on, how thy memory 

Will then be pang'd by me." — Cymbeline, p. 383. col. 1. 

" And now doth ghostly death 

With greedy tallents gripe my bleeding heart, 
And like a harper tyers on my life." 

One of Malone's Notes, vol. 1. part 2. p. 211.] 

" Euen as an empty eagle, sharp by fast, 
Tires with her beak on feather, flesh and bone, 
Shaking her wings, deuouring all in haste, 
Till either gorge be stuft"'d, or prey be gone." — Venus and Adonis. 

" I thinke this honourable lord did but try us this other day. Upon 
that were my thoughts tyring when we encountred." 

Timon of Athens, p. 89.^ 

" This man, 

If all our fire were out, would fetch down new 
Out of the hand of Jove, and rivet him 
To Caucasus, should he but frown ; and let 
His own gaunt eagle fly at him to tire." 

B. Jonson, Catiline, act 3. 

Turd and dung may therefore be well applied to the same 
thing j although each word has intrinsically a very different 
meaning : for turd^ i. e. that which has been fed upon, been 



^ [Upon this passage Dr. Johnson says — " A hawk, I think, is said to 
tire, when she amuses herself with pecking a pheasant's wing, or 
any thing that puts her in mind of prey.. To tire upon a thing, is 
therefore, to be idly employed upon it.'' ! 

Upon this note, Malone sagaciously remarks — '' I believe Dr. Johnson 
is mistaken. Tiring means here, I think, Fixed, Fastened; as the hawk 
fastens its beak eagerly on its prey." !] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 527 

eaten_, must_, by the course of nature, be afterwards Dejectum 
from the body; and thereby becomes dung. 

"Sum man hadde a fige tree plauntid in his vyner, and lie cam 
sekinge fruyt in it, and fonde not. sotheli he seide to the tilier of the 
vyner, lo thre yeris ben, sithen I come sekynge fruyt in this litil fyge 
tree: and I fynde not. therfor kitte it doiin, wherto oocupieth it the 
erthe ? And he answeringe seide to him, Lord, suffre also this yeer : 
til the while I delue aboute it, and sende toordis. And if it shal make 
fruyt : ellis in tyme to comynge thou shalt kitte it doun." 

Luke, ch. 13. V. 6, 7, 8, 9. 

" Natheles I gesse alle thingis for to be peyrment for the clear science 
of Ihesu Crist, for whom I made alle thinges peirement, and I deme as 
TOORDis, that I Wynne Crist." — ^liilippeifisys, ch. 3. v. 8. 

Muck ") These two words are improperly confounded by 

MixEN j Jimius and Skinner. They do not mean the same 
thing. 

Muck is the past tense and therefore past participle of 
ODicjan, meiere, mingere^ To Piss. And it means (any thing, 
something) pissed upon. Hence the common saying — "As 
wet as muck/^ i. e. As wet as if pissed upon. So the hay 
and straw, &c. which have been staled on by the cattle, make 
the MUCK heap, or heap of materials which have been staled 
upon by the cattle. 

MixEN means the same as Mixed^ and is equivalent to 
Compost. — "Quia est (as Skinner truly says) miscela omnium 
alimentorum.^^ 

"The operation of the stomake is, to make a good myxyon of thynges 
there in, and to digeste them well." 

Regiment of Helth, By Tho. Paynel, fol. 48. p. 1. 

What we call a mixen was indifferently termed in the 
Anglo-Saxon- either OQeox or GQixen : that is, they either (in 
their accustomed manner) used the regular past tense as a 
past participle ; or they added the participial termination en 
to the verb, and so obtained a past participle. Our English 
verb To Mix is no other than the Anglo-Saxon verb CDij-can, 
miscere. By casting off the Anglo-Saxon infinitive termi- 
nation an, and, according to our custom, prefixing our infinitive 
sign To, we had the verb To Misc. And this, by a transpo- 
sition common to all people and languages, became To Mies, 



528 OP ABSTRACTION. [PART TI. 

i. e. To Mix. OOeocj' or QDeox is the past tense of GOij-can or 
GQicpaiij used participially : and OQij-cen^ GOicjenj or Mixen is the 
past participle. 

I cannot help noticing to you as we pass (though I have 
often forborne a similar remark) that the Latin verbs Miscere 
and MeierCj for which Junius and Vossius would send us in 
vain to the Hebrew^ are evidently from our own Northern lan- 
guage ; with no other' difference than the Latin infinitive 
termination ere instead of the Anglo-Saxon infinitive termina- 
tion AN. 

Anglo-Saxon OQij'c-an A.-S. ODicj-an. 

Latin . . Misc-ere Lat. \ ^fP \ -ere, 

iMrngJ 

F. — You have touched upon this subject before. And what 
you threw out has not been lost upon me. I do spy great re- 
lief to the difficulties of the Latin etymologist,, by directing his 
view to the North rather than to the East^ when all his labour 
and toil are frustrate in the Greek. And I agree with -you, 
that, dismissing the common terminations, which are mere com- 
mon adjuncts to the different words, it is impossible not to 
discover at once the derivation of many of them. 

Besides those Latin words you have already noticed; the 
following. 



hAB-AN 

)>abb-an 


}- 


— Hab-ere 






J>n8ec-an 




— Nee- are 






8ec-an 




— Sequ-i — qu 


equivalent to c. 


)^i5-an 




— J-re — The aspirate suppressed. 








r Which the Latin has 


J)enfc.an 




Hend-ere — 


-{ 






only in composition. 


8uc-an 




— Suy-ere 




• 


Pab-an 




— Vad-ere 






Pealop-ian 




— Volv-ere 






pejC-an 




— Vast -are 






rieup-an 




— Flu -ere 






8pip-ian 




— Spir-are 






8peop-ian 




— Spu-ere 






8piC-an 




— Sput-are 






OOilcfC-ian 




— Mulc-ere 







CH. IV.] 



OF ABSTRACTION. 



529 



COeolc-ian 



trpenn-ian 

Pm-an 

PyDj-an 

Fej-an 

Dilj-ian 

Kaji-ian 

ep-ian 



Til-ian 

CDitt-an 

or 
N let- an 
Kejij'-aTi 
Cijipf-an 
P«c-an 
Ipf-ian 

tgk-An 

Dein-aa 
Pjiop-ian 

Cpac-ian 

Reap-ian 
Suej-ian 
Bibb-an 

&c. 



r Observe, Lac is the Latin 

,-. , \ substantive: whilst we 

Mulq-ere-i .. , 

I retain the past partici- 

L pie of our own verb. 

-Grunre n-i 

'Pun-ire 

-Pung-eie 

-Fig- ere 

-Del- ere 

-Cur- are 

-Mol-ere 



} 



— Ar-are 
Toll-ere- 

Nect-ere. 



( antiently written with 
(. only one l. 



Cres-cere 

Crisp- are 

Pecc-are 

— —Irasc-i 
T any -ere- 



-antiently Tag-ere 



— Damn- are 
— Prob-are 
{ Quass-are 
X Quat-ere 
— Rap-ere 

Suad-ere 

Pet-ere 

&c. 



are plainly of Northern origin : and the Latin etymologist 
struggles in vain to discover any other source. 

But, in my opinion, the most decisive fact in your favour, is, 
that we find in the Latin [as Nouns) many of our past partici- 
ples ; which cannot receive any rational explanation in the Latin 
or Greek languages ; because they have either not adopted the 
verbs to which those participles belong ; or did not from those 
verbs form their past participles in the Anglo-Saxon manner. I 
mean, for instance, such words as, 

2 M 



530 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

[Gaudi'Um De-eabij-an.] 

Nod-US — —Knot, of Dnittan, nectere. 

Sh'M-us of Stylcan^ obstupescere. 

Long-US Low^, of Lenjian, extendere. 

Fced-us Fsejeb^ of T^jan^ pangere. 

Jag-um loc. Yoke, of Ican^ jungere. 

Dir-us Dear, of Dipian, nocere. 

Spoli-um Spoil, of Spillan, privare. 

Laiis l^liof , of j^lif an_, celebrare. 

Hestern-us Yester, of trej'tpman, acquirere. 

„ ' [ J^poji, of )^pypan, cadere, prolabere. 

Mort-is 1 I GQop-S, of GQipjian, dissipare, abstra- 

Mors 3 I here. 

Aur-a Opa'S^ of Ope^ian,, spirare. 

Di-es Dsej, of Dsejian, illucescere. 

Ocul-us "■ ^nr^, of jlfirAN, ostendere. 

&c. &c. 

Of all which words the serious and elaborate accounts given by 
the Latin etymologists, will cause to those who consult them, 
either great disgust or great entertainment, according to the 
disposition and humour of the inquirer. 

But I beg pardon for this interruption, which yourself how- 
ever occasioned : ¥/e shall have time enough hereafter to 
canvass this matter : and I entreat you at present to proceed in 
your course. 

H. — Loos, though now and long since obsolete, was formerly 
in common use in the language : and your mention of the Latin 
word LAUS has brought it to my recollection. 

" It is a carefull knight, and of kaytife kynges making, 
That hath no land ne linage riche ne good loos of hys liandes." 

Vision of F. Floughman, fol. 57. p. 2. 
" And felle, that Ariadne tho, 
Whiche was the doughter of Minos, 
And had herde the worthye LOS 

Of Theseus." Gower, lib. 5. fol. 112. p. 2. col. 1. 

" Great LOOS hath largesse, and great prise 
For botli wyse folke and unvvyse." 

Rom. of the Eose, fol. 125. p. 2. col. 1. 

^ \_Jksha, Sanskrit. — Ed.] 



CH. IV.] or ABSTRACTION. 531 

" She knewe by the folke that in his shippes be, 
That it was lason ful of renomee. 
And Hercules, that had the great loos." 

EypsipJdle, fol. 214. p. 1. col. 2. 
" Ye shal haue a shrewde name 
And wicked loos, and worse fame, 
Thoughe ye good loos haue well deserued." 

MBohe of Fame, fol. 300. p. 1. col. 1. 
" And yet ye shal haue better loos 

Eyght in dispyte of al your foos." Ibid. 

" And he gan blowe her loos so clere 
In hys golden clarioun, 

Through the worlde went the soun." Ibid. col. 2. 

" In heuen to bene losed with God hath none ende." 

Testament of Loue, boke 1. fol. 310. p. 2. col. 2. 
" Sir priest, he said, I kepe for to haue no loos 
Of my crafte, for I wold it were kept cloos. 
And as you loue me, kepith it secre." 

Tale of Chanons Feman, fol. 63. p. 1. col. 2. 
[" That much he feared least reproachfull blame 
With foule dishonour liim mote blot therefore ; 
Besides the losse of so much loos and fame. 
As through the world thereby should glorifie his name.'* 

Faeine Queene, book 6. cant. 12. st. 12.] 

This word was also antiently in common use with the French. 
Menage endeavoured to revive it. He says — " Ce mot etoit un 
beau mot. le souhaiterois fort qu^on le remit en usage : et pour 
cela, j^ai dit dans mon epitre a M. Pelisson : 

* Fais-tu raisonner le LOS 
De Fouquet, ton grand heros.' " 

Loos or LOS is evidently the past participle of the verb 
KMifan, celebrare.^ As Laus also is. Of which had the 
Latin etymologists been aware; they never would, by such 
childish allusions, have endeavoured to derive it from Aao^, 
popidus — " ut LAUs proprie sit sermo populi de virtute alicujus 
testantis." 

" Vel a Aato, id est, eloquor." 

^ [" ^f>ly ))LY8A If pul CUD on geleapullum bocum." 

Mlfric. de Veteri Testamento, p. 13.] 
2 M 2 



532 OP ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Vel ab antiquo Aavco, id est, fruor. — " Quia nullus virtutis 
major est fruetus, quam laus." 

Busy, i. e. Occupatus, is the past participle of Byy^mn, 
occupare. 

Stunt, i. e. Stopped in the growth: the. past participle of 
Scmtan, To Stop} 

Numb ") [Swedishy Dumbskalle.] This word was for- 

NuMscuLL J merly written num. How, or why, or when the 
B was added to it, I know not. 

" She fel, as she that was throng nome 
Of loue, and so forth ouercome." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 103. p. 1. col. 2. 
" He male neither go ne come, 
But all to gether he is benome 
The power both of honde and fete." 

Ibid. lib. 6. fol. 127. p. 3. col. 1. 
[" Or hath the crampe thy ioynts benomd with ache." 

Spenser i Shepheards Calender ^ August.l 

" If this law 

Of nature be corrupted through aifection, 
And that great mindes, of partiall indulgence 
To their benummed wills, resist the same, 
There is a law in each well-ordred nation 

To curbe those raging appetites." Troylus and Cressida. 

" Bedlam beggars, who with roaring voices 
Strike in their num'd and mortified armes 

Pins, &c." Zear, p. 293. 

" These feet whose strengthlesse stay is numme." 

1st Part of Henry VI. p. 104. 

["It was such hitter weather that the foote had waded allmost to 

the middle in snow as they came, and were so nummed with cold, when 

they came into the towne, that they were faine to be rubbed to get life in 

them." — Life of Col. Hutchinson, p. 181.] 

NuM is the past tense and past participle of Niman, capere, 
eripere. To Nim. Skinner says truly — ^' Eodem fere sensu 

* Skinner says— "Stunt, vox agro Line, faiuiliaris, IVrox, iracundus, 
contumax, ab A.-S. Stunra, yzunza, stultus, fatuus ; fort, quia stulti, 
praiferoces sunt : vcl a verbo To Stand, ut Resty, a restando ; metaphora 
ab equis contumacibus sumpta." Lye says — " Stunt, alicujus rei incre- 
mentum impedire : manifeste venit ab Isl. Stunta, abbreviare ; in decursu, 
sensu aliquant ulum mutato." 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 533 

quo Lat. dicitur membris captus, i. e. membrorum usu, sc. motu 
et sensu privatus/' 

NuMscuLL^ in Ital. Meniecatto, Animo captus. 
So Seneca. Hercules Furens. 
" Ut possit animo captus Alcides agi, 
Magno furore percitus ; vobis prius - 
Insaniendum est." 
Hurt — The past participle of J^yppian, injuria afficere, 
vexare. 

Hunger — The past participle of J^yn5p:ian_, esurire. 
Din ^ 

Dint > The past participle of Dynan_, strepere. To Din. 
Dun ) 

" They hurled together and brake their speares and all to sheuered 
them, that all the castle rang of their dints." 

Hist, of Prince Arthur^ ch. 132. 
A DUN is one who has dinned another for money or any 
thing. 

Snake") Snake, Anglo-Saxon 8nac, is the past participle 
Snail V of 8nican, serpere,, repere, To Creep, To Sneak ; 
Snug ) as Serpens in Latin is the present participle of 
Serpere. 

Shakespeare very properly gives this name to a sneaking or 
creeping fellow. 

" I see Loue hath made thee a tame snake." 

As you like it, act 4. sc. 3. p. 202. 

Snail, pnaejel (or Snakel) the diminutive of snake : g being 
sounded and written instead of k in the Anglo-Saxon ; and both 
G and K dropped in the English. 

Snug (i. e. Snuc) is likewise the past participle of 8nican ; 
the characteristic i changed to u, and g sounded for k. 

Smut — is the past participle of Smifcan, be-pmitan, polluere, 
inquinare, contaminare.^ 



* [" Then, all around with a wet sponge he wiped 
His visage, and his arms and brawny neck 
Purified, and his shaggy breast from smutch." 

Coicper's Iliad, vol. 2. book 18. p. 235. 
"A cauldron of four measures, never smirch'd 
By smoke or flame." lUd. book 23. p. 380.] 



534 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Crum — Mica, is the past participle of Epymmarij acpymman, 
friare. 

" The ryche man shal gyue answere of euery tlirede in Ms clothe, of 
euery crqmme of brede in his bredeskep, of euery droppe of drynke of 
his barell and in his Tonne.'' — Diues and Pauper, 8th Comm. cap. 17. 

[*' Then art thou in a state of life which philosophers commend. A 
CRUM for thy supper, a hand for thy cup." 

Campaspe {by John Lily), act 1. sc. 2.] 

" As the gold-finer will not out of the dust, threds, or shreds of gold, 
let pass the least crum ; in respect of the excellency of the metall ; so 
ought not the learned reader to let pass any syllable of this law, in 
respect of the excellency of the matter." 

Lord CoJce's Exposit. qf^^th chap, of Magna Charta. 

I The past participle of Irpymman, ssevirCj fremere.* 

Gun — formerly written gon, is the past participle of Irymaii, 
hiare. 

" They dradde none assaut 
Of gynne, gonne, nor skafFaut." 

Bom. of the Base, fol. 140. p. 1. col. 1. 

Scum — That which is Skimmed off; the past participle of 
the verb To Skim. Hence the Italian Schiuma and the French 
Escume, Ecume. 

Snuff — That which is Sniffed up the nose ; the past par- 
ticiple of the verb To Sniff. 

Pump — An engine by which water, or any other fluid is 
obtained or procured. It is the past participle of the verb 
To Pimp J i. e. To procure j or obtain. 



^ [" Calati dunque nel cosco, e portati bene, sai ? Che monel fra tanto 
andra a canzonar co '1 grimo." 

Guariniy La Idropica, atto 3. sc. 10. 
" Grima. Vecchia Grima^' says Menage, " II Sig'. Ferrari da Cri- 
nitia. L'Eritreo, a Bimis .■ * quod ejus frons rugis arata sit.' Sono da 
cercare altre derivazioni di questa voce. Grimace per Sinorfa, diciamo 
in Francia." 

La Crusca says — *' Grimo : aggiunto che diamo a vecchio grinzo, 
sencx rugosus." 

" The hearing this doth force the tyrant gry." 

Godfrey of Bnlloigne, Trandated by R. C. p. Gl. caut. 2. st. 23. 
" Ilor, questo udendo, in minaccicvol suono 
Freme il tiranno."] 



CH. IV.] OP ABSTRACTION. 535 

Stench — is the past participle of Scmcan^ foetere; pro- 
nouncing CH for K. As Wench is the past participle of pincan ; 
Drench of Dpmcan ; and Wrench of ppmjan. 

Snack — Something Snatched, taken hastily, K for ch ; it is 
the past participle of the verb To Snatch. 

Ditch ^ The past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb 

Dyche [-Dician, fodere. To Big. As the Latin reputed 

Dike ) substantive Fossa is the past participle of fodere. 
In these Tvords Dig, Dyke, Dyche, Ditch, we see at one view 
how easily and almost indifferently we pronounce the same word 
either with g, k, or ch. 

" I DYKE and delue and do that truth hoteth, 
Some tyme I sowe and some tyme I thresh." 

Vision of P. FlougJiman, pass. 6. fol. 29. p. 1. 

" These labourers, deluers and dykers ben ful poore." 

Dines and Pauper, 1st. Comm. cap. 46. 

"Two freres walkynge on a dyches brjmke." — Ibid. cap. 50. 

Dim — The past participle of Dimnian, abimniaUj obscurare. 
It was formerly in English written dimn.^ 

*' Ye elues, by whose ayde I haue bedymn'd 

The noone tide sun." Tempest, p. 16. 

" With sad unhelpeful teares, and with dimn'd eyes." 

U Part of Hairy VI. p. 132. 

Trim — used adjectively or substantively, is the past participle 
of the verb Tpyman, ordinare, disponere. 

" Young ladies, sir, are long and curious 

In putting on their trims." — B. and Fletcher, TFomen Pleas' d. 

" In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes." Gray. 

Limb ^I In Anglo-Saxon written Lim^ and Limb ; b being 

Limbo J written for p. It is the past participle of the 

Anglo-Saxon verb Limpian, pertinere. And it means — quod 



^ Junius derives this word from *' AeLfiaadai, quod Hesychio exp. 
(po^eiaOai, mctuere ; quandoquidem naturalis tenebraruni metus est." 

Skinner, from "Teut. Demmen, Lammen, obturare; quia omnia ob- 
turata propter luminis exclusionem tenebricosa sunt." 

Lye from " C. B. et Arm. Lu, vel Dy ; caliginosus, ater, nigcr." 
S. Johnson, — from " Pow, Erse." 

^ Junius says — "LiM, fortasse per invcrsioncm factum e tril)iis 
iuitialibus Uteris Gra^ci /xfXoy, mcmbrun)." 



536 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART IT. 

pertinet or quod pertinuit. What belongeth or hath helouged 
to something. Limb of the body. Limb of the law. Limb of 
an argument_, &c. Hence and hence only are derived the Latin 
words Limbus and Lembus : ^ which are sometimes translated 
TrepL-arpoy/iia, 7re pt-Treracr/jLa : but that is not precisely the mean- 
ing, unless the notion of pertinendi, i. e. of holding to, or 
belonging to, is included. 

[" He found himself imwist so ill bestad. 
That LIM he could not wag." 

Faerie Qiieene, book 5. cant. 1. st. 22. 
" And soothly sure she was full fayre of face, 
And perfectly well shapt in every lim." 

Ibid, book 6. cant. 9. st. 9.] 

Imp — Shakespeare, in Loues Labours Lost, p. 125, makes 
Don Arm ado say, 

" Sadnesse is one and the selfe same thing, dear impe." 

Upon this passage Dr. Johnson says ; — " Imp was antiently a 
term of dignity. Lord Cromwel in his last letter to Henry VIII. 
prays for the imp his son. It is now used only in contempt or 
abhorrence; perhaps in our author^s time it was ambiguous, in 
Avhich state it suits well with this dialogue.'^ 

In the 2d part of Henry IV. p. 99, we have imp again^ 

" Saue thy grace, king Hall, my royall Hall. 
The heauens thee guard and keepe, most royall impe of fame." 

And again in Henry F. p. 83. 

" The king 's a bawcock, and a heart of gold, a lad of life, an impe of 
fame, of parents good." 

Mr. Steevens (very differently indeed from Dr. Johnson) 
sought industriously and judiciously for tlie meaning of Shake- 
speare's words, by the use which was made of the same terms 
by otlier antient authors : and nothing was wanting to Mr. 
Steevens to make him a most perfect editor of Shakespeare, but 



^ "Ltj\ibus — Non occurrit nunc unde verisimilius deducam, quam a 
Ao/3oy, c[uo ra (iKpa mivTu significari llcsychius ct SuicUis tcstantur." — 

VoSUt'.H. 



CH. IV.] or iiBSTRACTION. 537 

a knowledge of his own primitive language, the Anglo-Saxon. 
Mr. Steevens tells us, — " An imp is a Shoot ^ in its primitive 
sense, but means a Son in Shakespeare. In Holinshed, p. 951, 
the last words of Lord Cromwel are preserved, who says — ^ And 
after him that his sonne prince Edward, that goodlie impe, may 

long reigne over you.^ " And again, " The word imp is 

perpetually used by Ulpian Fulwell, and other antient writers, 
for progeny. 

' And were it not tliy royal impe 
Did mitigate our pain.' — 

Here Fulwell addresses Anne Bulleyne, and speaks of the young 
Elizabeth. Again, in the Battle of Alcazar , 1594: 

' Amurath, mighty emperor of the East, 
That shall receive the imp of royal race.' — 

Impyyn is a Welch word, and primitively signifies a Sprout, 
a Sucker. In Newton^s Herbal to the Bible, 8vo. 1587, there 
is a chapter — on shrubs, shootes, slippes, young imps, sprays, 
and buds.-'^ 

Mr. Steevens needed not to have travelled to Wales, for that 
which he might have found at home. Our language has abso- 
lutely nothing from the Welch. Imp is the past participle of the 
Anglo-Saxon verb Impan, 7b Plant, To Graft. 

"I was continually a frj^er 

And the couentes gardiner for to graft impes 

On limitors and listers, lesynges I imped • 

Tyll they beare leaues of smowthe speach." 

Fisio?i of Pierce Ploughman, pass. 6. fol. 22. p. 2. 

" Impe on an elderne, and if thyne apple be swete 
Muchel mamaile me thynketh." — Ibid. pass. 10. fol. 44-. p. 1. 

*' As it is in younge and tender ympes, plantes, and twygges, the 
whiche euen as ye bo we tliem in theyr youthe, so wyll they euermore 
remayn." — Byrihe of Mankynde, fol. 54. p. 2. 

[" And also for the love which thou doest beare 
To th' Heliconian ymps, and they to thee ; 
They unto tliee, and thou to them, most deare." 

Spenser's Verses to the Parle of Oxenford. 

" And thou, most dreaded i.mpe of highest Jove, 
Faire Arenas sonne." Faerie Queeue, Prol. to 1st book. 



538 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 



" That detestable sight him much amazde, 



To see th' unkindly IM pes, of heaven accurst, 

Devoure their dam." Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 1. st. 26. 

" For all he taught the tender ymp, was but 
To banish cowardize and bastard feare." — Ibid. cant. 6. st. 24. 

" Well worthy impe, said then the lady gent, 
And pupil fitt for such a tutor's hand." — Ibid. cant. 9. st. 6. 

" And thou, faire ymp, sprong out from English race, 
How ever now accounted Elfins sonne. 
Well worthy doest thy service for her grace. 
To aide a virgin desolate fordonne." — Ibid. cant. 10. st. 60. 

*' Now, thou sacred Muse, most learned dame, 

Eayre ympe of Phcebus and his aged bryde." 

Ibid. cant. 11. st. 5. 
" Fayre ympes of beautie, whose bright shining beames 

Adorne the world with like to heavenly light." 

Ibid, book 3. cant. 5. st. 53. 
" The first was Eansy, like a lovely boy 

Of rare aspect and beautie without peare, 

Matchable either to that ympe of Ti'oy, 

Whom Jove did love and chose his cup to beare, 

Or that same daintie lad, which was so deare 

To great Alcides." Ibid. cant. 12. st. 7. 

" Eond dame ! that deem'st of things divine 
As of humane, that they may altred bee. 
And chaung'd at pleasure for those impes of thine." 

Ibid, book 4. cant. 2. st. 51. 

" Helpe therefore, O thou sacred impe of Jove, 
The noursling of dame Memorie his deare." — Ibid. cant. 11. st. 10. 

" That faire city (Cambridge) wherein make abode 



So many learned impes, that shoote abrode, 

And with their brauuches spred all Britany." Ibid. st. 16. 

" But Beige with her sonnes prostrated low 
Before his feete, in all that peoples sight ; 
Mongst ioyes mixing some teares, mongst welc some wo. 
Him thus bespake : most redoubted knight. 
The Avhich hast me, of all most wretched wight, 
That earst was dead, restored to life againe, 
And these weakc impes replanted by thy might." 

Ibid, book 5. caut. 11. st. 16. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 539 

" Ye sacred imps that on Parnasso dwell, 

And there the keeping have of leaniings threasures." 

Faerie Queene, book 6. cant. 1. st. 2. 
*' The noble ympe, of such new service fayne. 

It gladly did accept." Ihid. cant. 2. st. 38. 

" That of the like, whose linage was unknowne. 

More brave and noble knights have raysed beene 

(As their victorious deedes have often showen. 

Being with fame through many nations blowen) 

Then those which have bene dandled in the lap. 

Therefore some thought that those brave imps were sowen 

Here by the gods, and fed with heavenly sap, 

That made them grow so high t' all honorable hap." 

Ibid, book 6. cant. 4. st. 36. 
" Brave impe of Bedford, grow apace in bountie, 

And count of wisedome more than of thy countie." 

Spenser's Ruines of Time. 
" The sectaries of my celestiall skill, 

That wont to be the worlds chiefe ornament. 

And learned impes that wont to shoote up still, 

And grow to height of kingdomes government." 

Spenser, Teares of the Muses. 

" The Norman, th' English, and Dardaniane, 
(0 royall impe) are ioyned by thy sire ; 
And thou fro mothers side draw'st blood of Dane." 

To the Prince [Charles \st) his highnes. Welcome home, §"0. 
Ancient Monuments, by William L'lsle of Wilburgham, Esquire 
to the King's body. st. 6. Francis Eglejield, 1638. 

" Then shall we need no more to plant vs vines. 

Nor them to prop, to spread, to prune, to rub ; 

Nor send beyond seas for outlandish wines ; 

But in our fields, about each humble shrub. 

The selfe-set imp shall winde, and load the same 

With purple clusters, all of deerest name." — Ibid. st. 21.] 

Grip — and its diminutive grapple, the past participle of 
Irjiipan, prehendere. 

Mist — The past participle of ClOijrian, caligare.^ 



^ Minshew derives mist from the Latin Mistus. " Acr cnim caligine 
et dcnsis vaporibus Mistus.'' 



540 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Bliss | The past participle of Bhn'ian and Blijjj-ian, 

Blith ) Isetari. 

Quick — The past participle of Irpiccian, vivificare. 

Wizen — The past participle of pifman^ arescere. 

Stiff — The past participle of Scipfian^, rigere. 

Thick • "*\ 

A The past participle of Diccian_, densare, con- 

J. HICKET ^ T 

^ \ densare. 

Thigh J 

Thicket^ for Thicked, i. e. with trees. Thigh (gh for ck) is 
sometimes in the Anglo-Saxon written Deoh (for Deoc) by 
change of the characteristic letter. 

Witch ") Skinner inclines to suppose wicked derived 
Wicked 3 from Vifiatus : and Johnson, that — " Perhaps it 
is a compound of i c (vile, bad) and Head, — Malum caput. '^ — 

According to which latter wise supposition, a wicked action 
means — a malum caput action : but nothing is too ridiculous 
for this Undertaker. Witch is the past tense, used as a par- 
ticiple, of the Anglo-Saxon verb piccian, incantare, veneficiis 
uti. And wicked i. e. witched (k for ch) is the same past 
tense, with the participial termination ed. The word witch is 
therefore as applicable to men as to women. 

" Witches, in foretime named Lot-tellers^ now commonly called sor- 
cerers." Catalogue of English printed Bookes. 1595, 

By Andrew Maunselly p. 132. 

Lot-teller ; i. e. a teller of covered or hidden things. 

" Wherof came the name of Symonye ? Of Symon Magus, a grete 
WYTCHE." — Diues and Pauper, 7th Comm. cap. 16. 

" Dauid was lyk wyce so intanglid in the snares of the deuill, that 
with mouche paine he could quit hym self from the wycchyd coupe that 
the deuill had ons brought hym." 

Declaracion of Christe, By Johan Hope)', cap. xi. 

The notions of enchantment, sorcery and witchcraft were 



Dr. Th. Hickes supposes it to be Moist. 

And according to Junius — " Yidetur esse a fifia-Tov, quod Hesychio 
exp. eXaxio-Tov, nihil Cnini aliud est nebula, quain tcnuissima qiiredara 
ac subtilissima })luvia." 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 541 

universally prevalent with our ancestors^ who attributed all 
atrocious actions to this source : thus attempting to cover the 
depravity of human nature by its weakness^ and the depravity 
of some other imaginary beings. So run our indictments to 
this day ; in which the crime is attributed to the instigation of 
the Devil. 

^' Latini certe comici/' says Junius^ " hominem aperte im- 
probum atque omnibus invisum^ pari prorsus ratione^ dixerunt 
Veneficum.^^ 

HiLDiNG — (like Coward) is either the past participle of the 
verb J>ylban_, inclinare^ curvare^ To Bend down, To Crouch or 
To Cower ; (and then it should be written hilden) or it is the 
present participle J^ylbmj (J^ylbanb) of the same verb. 

[" Which when that squire beheld, he to them stept, 

Thinking to take them from that hylding hound." 

Faerie Queene, book 6. cant. 5. st. 25.] 
" A base slaue, a hilding for a liuorie, a squires cloth, a pantler." 

tymheline, p. 378. 
" 'Tis positiue against aU exceptions. Lords, 

That our superfluous lacquies, and our pesants, 

"Who in unnecessaiie action swarme 

About our squares of battaile, were enow 

To purge this field of such a hilding foe." — Henry F. p. 86. 
" He was some hielding fellow% that had stolne 

The horse he rode on." 2nd Fart Henry IV. p. 75. 

" Xay, good my lord, put him to 't ; let him have his way. If your 
lordshippe finde him not a hilding, hold me no more in your respect. 
Beleeue it, my lord, in mine owne dhect knowledge, he is a most notable 
coward:' ' All's Well that Enda Well, p. 243. 

Some have supposed hilding to mean Hinderling (if ever 
there was such an English word) and some Hilderling ; which_, 
Spelman says, is familiar in Devonshu-e. It is true that 
J>ylbep is a term- of reproach in the Anglo-Saxon,, furnished by 
this same verb, and means — a croucher or cowerer} 



^ S. Johnson, in a note, act 2. sc. 1. Taming of a Shrew, tells us that 
hilding means — " a low wretch:* But in his Dictionary he has dis- 
covered that }pilb in the Anglo-Saxon means a Lord: and that " perhaps 
Hilding means originally a little Lord, in contempt for a man that has 
only the delicacy or bad qualities of high rank." 



542 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Ripe — the past participle of Ripian_, maturescere. 

Rhime — of J^piman^ numerare. 

Spoil — of SpiUan^ privare, consumere. 

Crisp — In the Anglo-Saxon Cippj', of Eippfian, crispare^ 
torquere. 

Deed (like Actum and Factum) means — something, any thing 
— DONE. It is the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb Don, 
To Do. Do -ED, DID, DEED, is the same word differently spelled. 
It was formerly written dede, both for the past tense and past 
participle. 

" I do nought as Ulysses dede." — Gower, lib. 1. fol. 10. p. 2. col. 2. 
" Fy, upon a lorde that woU haue no mercy 
But be a lyon, bothe in worde and dede." 

Kuightes Tale, fol. 5. p. 2. col. 1. 

Need 'i Nybbe, the past tense and past participle of 
Needle ; Nybian, cogere, compellere, adigere.^ 

Needle, (the diminutive of need) a small instrument^ pushed, 
driven. 

Observe, as we pass, that To Knead is merely De-nyban, 
(Dnyban) pronounced Eneban — k for g. 

Deep ") Deep (which some derive from ^v6o<^, fundum; 

DKB'CMck ) primis tribus Uteris inversis : and others from 
AvTrra)) is merely the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb 
Dippan, mergere, To Dip, To Dive. 

" Deape linen clothes in to sundry waters, and after lay them to dry, 
and that whiche is sonest dry, the water wherin it was deaped, is most 
^\xhi^\r—Castel of HeltJi, fol. 31. p. 2. 

" A spunge deaped in cold water." — Ibid. fol. 34. p. 1. 

In nK^-chick or non-chick ; dab or dob, (so pronounced for 
Dap or Dop) is also the past participle of Dippan ; by the accus- 
tomed change of the characteristic i to a or o. 



* Minshew derives need from the Hebrew Nadacli, impulit. 
Mer. Casaubon, from the Greek evbeia, penuria. 
Junius, from i/vo-oro), wttco. 
And needle, Mer. Cas. would derive from ^(Xovrj. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 543 

" So was he diglit 
That no man might 
Hym for a frere deny, 
He DOPPED and dooked 
Pie spake and looked 
So religiously." — Sir T. Mores WorJces, fol. 11. p. 1. 

" This officere 
This fayned frere 
Whan he was come aloft, 
He DOPPED than 
And grete this man 
Eeligiously and oft." — Ibid. 

" The diving DOB-chick, here amongst the rest you sec, 
Now up, now down, that hard it is to proue, 
Whether under water most it liveth, or above." 

Foly-olbion, song 25. 

Weak — The past participle of pican, labare, To Totter, 
To Fail, 

Help — The past participle of J^ylpan, adjuvare : which 
Minshew derives from EXirt^; ; and Junius from " avWa^etv, 
sibilo tantummodo in aspiratam commutato." 

Well — Is the past participle of pillan_, ebuUire^ effluere, 
To Spring out, To Well, 

It means (any or some place) where water, or other fluid, 
hath S2jru7if/ out, or welled. 

" And than welled water for wicked workes 
Egrely Ernynge out of mens eyen." 

Vision of P. FloiigJiman, pass. 20. foL 109. p. 2. 

" Where as the Poo, out of a wel small 
Taketh his first spring and his sours." 

Gierke of Oxenf. Prol. fol, 45. p. 1. col. 2. 

'' Por which might she no longer restrayne 
Her tcares, they gan so up to well." 

Troylus, boke 4. fol. 18G. p. ]. col. 1. 

" Mine eyen two in vayne, with which I se, 
Of sorowful tearcs salte am woxen wellis." 

Ibid, boke 5. fol. 197. p. 2. col. 2. 



544 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" I can no more but here outcast of al welfare abyde the daye of my 
dethe, or els to se the syght that myght al my wellyng sorowes vryde, 
and of the //o^ make an ebbe." 

Tedaynent of Loue, fol. 304. p. 1. col. 1. 

*' The mother of the Soudoii wel of vices." 

Man of Lawes Tale, fol. 20. p. 1. col. 1. 

" But Christe that of perfeccion is well." 

Wife of Bathes Frol. fol. 34. p. 2. col. 1. 
" There dwelt a terselet me fast by • ••■ 

That seemed wel of all gentilnesse." 

Squiers Tale, fol. 27. p. 1. col. 2. 

" The holy water of the sacrament of baptisme, the water that 
welleth oute of holy church which stretcheth to two seas of synnes." 

Sir T. More' 8 TForkes, p. 385. 

[" Thereby a christall streame did gently play, 

Which from a sacred fountaine welled forth alway." 

Faerie Qiieene, book 1. cant. 1. st. 34. 

" About the fountaine 



Whose bubbling wave did ever freshly well." 

Ibid. cant. 7. st. 4. 
" All wallowd in his own yet luJce-warme blood, 
That from his wound yet welled fresh." — Ibid. cant. 9. st. 86. 

" And with intrusive enmity to light, 
Welled like a spring, and dimmed the orbs of sight." 

The Maid of Snowdon, By Cwmherland. 
edit. 1810. p. 199.] 

^lkin^ j^ the Winter's Tale, act 1. sc. 1. p. 278. We 
Wheel >, ' ^ 

While j^"^"" 

" Come (Sir Page) 
Looke on me with your welkin eye." 

On which passage S. Johnson says hardily, as usual ; 
'^ welkin eye : Blue eye ; an eye of the same colour with 
the welkin or sky." 

And this is accepted and repeated by IMalone. I can only 
say, that this Note is worthy of them both ; and they of each 
other. 

Welkin is the present participle pillijenb, or pealcynb 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 545 

(i. e. volvens, quod volvit) of the Anglo-Saxon verb pillijan, 
pealcan, volvere, revolvere. Which is equally applicable to an 
eye of any colour — to what revolves or rolls over our heads — 
and to the waves of the sea. pealcynbe ea. pealcenbe ]*se. 

A rolling or wandering eye is no uncommon epithet : 

*'Come hither, pretty maid, with the black and rolling eye." 

Here is a black pealcynb or welkin eye : and indeed the 
WELKIN, or that which is rolled about over our heads, is some- 
times black enough.^ 

But Messrs. Johnson and Malone probably agree with Mr. 
Tyrwhitt, who, in the advertisement to his Glossary, p. iiii. says 
— '^ Etymology is clearly not a necessary branch of the duty of 
a Glossarist ! " 

Wheel, quod volvitur. In Anglo-Saxon J^peojl, J^peohl, 
J^peopol, (by transposition, for peolij or peoij) is also the past 
participle of pillijan. 



^ ["As gentle shepheard in sweete eventide, 

When ruddy Phebus gins to welke in west. 
High on an hill, his flocke to vewen wide, 
Markes which doe byte their hasty supper best." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 1. st. 23. 
" Ne ought the whelky pearles esteemeth hee, 
Which are from Indian seas brought far away." 

Spenser, FirgiVs Gnat. 
On which Mr. Todd gives the following note : 

" The WHILK or welk is a shell-fish. Perhaps the poet introduced 
this adjective in the sense of wreathed, twisted, as that shell-fish appears. 
Or perhaps it may be considered in the sense of whelked, that is, 
rounded, or embossed; from whelk, a protuberance, according to 
Fluellen's description of Bardolph's face. K. Hen. V. ' His face is all 
bubukles, and whelks, and knobs,' &c. — Where Mr. Steevens cites the 
word from Chaucer in the same sense." 

*' Methought his eyes 

Were two full nioones : he had a thousand noses, 
Homes wealk'd and waved hke the enraged sea." 

Lear, p. 303. col. 1. 
" There comes proud Phaeton tumbling thro' the clouds, 
Cast by his palfreys that their reigns liad broke, 
And setting fire upon the welked shrouds." 

Drayton, Barons Wars, 1)ook 6. st. 39.] 

2 N 



546 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

*' Haile to thee, Ladie : and tlie grace of heauen, 

Before, behinde thee, and on euery hand 

EnwheeLE thee round." Othello, p. 316. 

" Heaven's grace inwheel ye : 

And all good thoughts and prayers dwell about ye." 

B. and Fletcher, The Filgrim, act 1. sc. 2. 

While — In the Anglo-Saxon Dpile (for J^piol) is the same 
past participle. We say indifferently — Walk a While — or — 
Take a Turn. 

["And commonly he would not heare them whilest an hundred 
suters should come at once." — R. Ascham, p. 19.] 



/The past participle of Eypan^ mercari. To Traffickj 
Cheap I ^^ 5«r^«m, To Buy or Sell 

Good-CHEAv or Bad-CBT^AT, i. e. Well or 111 bargained, bought 
or sold : such were formerly the modes of .expression. The 
modern fashion uses the word only for good cheap ; and there- 
fore omits the epithet Goodj as unnecessary. 

" By that it neghed to haruest, new corne came to cheping." 

Vision of P. 'Ploughman, fol. 35. p. 2. 

" The sack that thou hast drunk me, would haue bought me lights as 
Good CHEAPE, at the dearest chandlers in Em-ope." 

\8t Part Henry IT. act 3. sc. 3. 

" To CHOP and change ^' — means To bargain and change. 

" I am an Hebrew borne by byrth 
And stolne away was I, 
And CHOPT and changde as bondslaues bee 

This wretched life to trye." — Genesis, ch. xl. fol. 100. p. 2. 

A CHAP or CHAPMAN. — Any one who has trafficked. 

Wreck -n ppac, ppsec, ppec. The past participle of 

Wretch M^^JCIKA^? Ppican, persequi, affligere, punire. 

Wretched Cvindicare, ulcisci, Isedere, perdere. The different 

Rack J pronunciation of ch or ck (common throughout 

the language) is the only difference in these words. They have 

all one meaning. And though, by the modern fashion, they are 

now differently applied and differently written; the same 

distinction was not antiently made. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 547 

" Such WRECH on hem for fetching of Heleyne 
Thare shal be take." Troylus, boke 5. fol. 195. p. 1. col. 2. 

" Other thought cometh not in my mynde, but gladnesse to thynke on 
your goodnesse and your meiy chere, frendes ; and sorowe to thynke on 
your WRECHE and your daunger." 

Testament of Loue, boke 1. fol. 303. p. 2. col. 2. 

" My sprete for ire irynt in propir tene, 
And all in greif thocht cruell vengeance tak, 
Of my countre for this myscheuous wraik 
With bitter panis to wreik our harmes smert." 

Douglas, booke 2. p. 58. 

" Vengeance tuke and wraik apoun our ilote." 

Ibid, booke 11. p. 370. 

" It was an open token of the grete offence to God with the people 
of Englonde, and that harde wretche was comyng but yf they wolde 
amend them," — Dines and Pauper, 1st Comm. cap. 29. 

" We sholde wepe and not be giadde for that we haue soo many 
martyrs, and nyght and daye crye mercy, to lett wretche." 

Ibid, cap. 60. 

"By this commaundement he forbedeth us wrathe and wretche." 

Ibid. 5th Comm. cap. 6. 

" You haue tresoured wrath and wretche to you in the laste dayes." 

Ibid. 8th Comm. cap. 18. 

" There uis sicke ne sorye, ne none so much wretch 
That he ne may loue, if him like." 

Vision of jP. Ploughman, pass. 18. fol. 96. p. 2. 

" The WRACHE walls and wryngis for this worldis wrak." 

Douglas, Prol. to booke 8. p. 228. 

" Na help unto thay wrachit folkis I socht 
Na armour sekit, nor thy craft besocht." — Ibid, booke 8. p. 255. 

" Man may know hymselfe to be as he is a very w re c chid and 
damnable creature, were not the vertew of Christes deathe." 

Declaracion of Christe, By lohan Hoper, cap. 12. 

"So that conies and frutis gois to avraik 
Throw the con-upit are." Douglas, booke 3. p. 72. 

We say — " go to rack and ruin.'^ 

Smear — The past participle of Smypian, ungere, illinere. 
Sheen — The past participle of Scinan, splendere, fulgcrc. 

2 N 2 



548 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Hearse "^ The past participle of T^yp]'tan_, ornare, phalerarCj 
Hurst ) decorare.^ Hearse is at present only applied to 
an ornamented carriage for a corpse. 

" So many torches, so many tapers, so many black gownes, so many 
mery mourners laughyng under black bodes, and a gay hers." — Sir T. 
More, Be Quatuor Novissimis, p. 79. 

["But leave these relicks of his living might 

To decke his herce, and trap his tomb-blacke steed." 

Faerie Queene, book 2. cant. 8. st. 16.] 

Hurst is applied only to places ornamented by trees. 

" The courteous forest show'd 

So just-conceived joy, that from each rising hurst. 
Where many a goodly oak had carefully been nurst, 
The sylvans in their songs their mirthful meeting tell." 

Poly-olbion, song 2. 

Wile -n Menage says — ^^ Guille. C^est un vieux mot 

Guile . / Francois, qui signifie tromperie, Les Anglois di- 

GuiLT ^ sent encore a present gile et wile^ pour tromperie. 

Gull J II est difficile de savoir s'ils ont emprante ce mot de 

nous, ou si nous le tenons d^eux.^^ It is easily settled between 

tbem. Neither has borrowed this word from the. other. They 

both hold it in common from their common Northern ancestors : 

though Mer. Casaubon would derive it from the Greek aLo\o<;, 

In the Anglo- Saxon_, pijlian^, Ije-pijlian, Be"pi5lian_, means To 

conjure, To divine, consequently To practise cheat, imposture 

and enchantment. 

Wile (from pijlian) and guile (from Ire-pijlian) is that by 
which any one is deceived. 

Guilt is Ere-pijleb, Guiled, GuiVdy Guilt : the past par- 
ticiple of De-pijlian. And to find guilt in any one, is to find 



^ Minshew derives hearse from " Greek, apais, i. e. a lifting up : for 
the Hearse is a monument or emptie tombe erected or set up for the 
honourable memorie of the dead." 

Junius says — " Medii a^vi scriptt. dicebatur ffemo',, quod vulgo for- 
tasse ita dictum ab A.-S. Afie, honor; vcl )?e|iian, laudare : quod in 
laudem honoremque defuncti erigatur." 

Skinner — " Nescio an a Tout, liuhe, siliqua : est enim cadaveris quasi 
exterior siliqua. Hoc Hulse, credo ortum ab A.-S. })elan, tegere, q. d. 
tegumentum." ^ 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 549 

that he has been Guiled, or^ as we now say, Be-yuiled : as 
Wicked means Witched, or Be-witched. To pronounce guilt is 
indeed to pronounce Wicked, 

Gull is the past tense (formed in the usual manner, by 
the change of the characteristic letter) and means merely a 
person Guiled or Beguiled. 

At this day, we make a wide distinction between Gull, 
the past tense, and guilt, the past participle ; because our 
modern notions of enchantment, sorcery, and witchcraft are 
very different from the notions of those from whom we re- 
ceived the words. Gull therefore is used by us for Guiled 
or Beguiled (subaud. aliquem) without any allusion to witch- 
craft. But guilt, being a technical Law-term, keeps its place 
in our legal proceedings, as the instigation of the Devil does ; 
and with the same meaning.^ 

F. — You seem to have confined yourself almost entirely to 
instances of the change of the characteristic letters i and y. 
And in those you have abounded to satiety. But we know 
that the verbs with other characteristic letters change in the 



^ These words have exceedingly distressed our Enghsh Etymologists. 
— Guilty, Minshew says, " a Belg. Gelden, i. e. luere, solvere : ut Reus 
— Res enim Reorum petitur in judicio." 

Junius — " Irylban est reddere, solvere. At que ita gyltig vel giltie 
proprie dicetur, qui culpam commissam tenetur solvere vel aere vel in 
corpore." 

Skinner — " A verbo Irilban, solvere. Et hoc prorsus ex moribus 
priscoi-um Germanomm ; qui qusevis crimina, imo horaicidium, et, quod 
vix credideris, etiam regum suorum csedem, inulctis pecuniariis expi- 
abant." 

Gull — Mer. Casaubon derives, by a most far-fetched allusion, from 
yvXioy, pera militaris. Junius and Skinner repeat this; and have no 
other derivation to offer; except that Junius says — "Mihi tamen Angl. 
gull non ita longe videtur abire a Scot. Cid^e : morari blando sermone, 
palpandoque demulcere." 

" Now him withhaldis the Phinitiane Dido 
And cul-^eis him with slekit wordis sle." 

Douglas, booke 1. p. 34. 
" And sche hir lang round nek bane bowand raith. 
To gif thaym souck, can thaym cw^je bayth." 

Ibid, booke 8. p. 266. 
" The cur or niaists he haldis at smale auayle. 
And cid-^eis spanjeartis, to cliacc partrik or quale." 



550 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART IT. 

same manner. Have not they also furnished the language 
with concealed participles, supposed to be substantives and 
adjectives ? 

H. — Surely. In great numbers. 

Food '\ In Anglo-Saxon j:ob, jzset, are the past participle of 

Fat J the verb Feban, pascere_, To Feed. 

Milk \ One and the same word differently pronounced 

Milch J (either ch or k)^ is the past participle of the verb 
GQelcan, mulgere. 

Meat — In Anglo-Saxon GDsec (whatever is Eaten) is the 
past participle of the verb \yl^T(^Jm, OQenan, edere, To 
Eat. 

Mess — Is the past participle of ODefcpan, cibare, To furnish 
meat or food. In French Mets ; in Italian Messo ; from the 
same verb. 

Scrap — Is the past participle of 8cpeopan_, scalpere, 
radere, To Scrape. It means (any thing, something) scraped 
off 

Offal — The past participle of Feallan, ^peallan ; as Skinner 
explains it — " quod decidit a mensa.^^ 

Ort — This word is commonly used in the plural; only 
because it is usually spoken of many vile things together. 
Shakespeare, with excellent propriety for his different purposes, 
uses it both in the singular and plural. 

" Where should he haue this gold ? It is some poor fragment, some 
slender ort of his remainder." — Tlmon of Athens, p. 94. 

" The fractions of her faith, orts of her lone. 
The fragments, Scraps, the Bits, and greazie Reliques 
Of her ore-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed." 

Troylus and Cressida, p. 102. 

Where you may observe Orts, Scraps, Bits, Reliques, all 
participles. 

Skinner says — " Orts, parum deflexo sensu, a Teut. Or/, 
quadrans sen quarta pars : fort, olira quaivis pars, sen portio." 
— Which derivation omits entirely the meaning of the word : 
for ORT is not applicable to every part or portion of a thing. 

Lye says — " Vox est, agro Devoniensi, usitatissima : undo 
suspicabar per plcrosque Anglisc comitatus diffusam fuisse ; et 
ex OUGHT (aliquid) corruptam, quod iis effertur ort, gh in r. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 551 

pro more suo, mutato. At aliter sentire coepi^ cum incidissem 
in Hib. orda^ fragmentum. Quod ut verum etymon non potui 
non amplecti." 

This groundless derivation of Mr. Lye, which explains just 
nothing at all_, and leaves us where we were, is by Johnson pro- 
nounced most reasonable : yet every fragment is not an ort. 

Orts is, throughout all England, one of the most common 
words in our language; which has adopted nothing from the 
Irish, though we use two or three of their words, as Irish. 
Orts is merely the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb 
Opectan, turpare, vilefacere, deturpare. Oret, ort means (any 
thing, something) made vile or worthless. 

Heat | In Anglo-Saxon J^set, J^ac, i. e. Heated; is the 

Hot 3 past participle of the verb l^aecan, calefacere. 
Hot, as a participle, is sufficiently common : Heat is rarely 
so used. Ben Jonson however so uses it in Sejaniis, act 3. 

" And fury ever boils more high and strong, 
Heat with ambition, than revenge of wrong." 

Warm — psejim, peapm, and Pypmeb, i. e. Warmed, are 
the past tense and past participle of the verb pypman, cale- 
facere. 

F. — What is luke-warm or lew-warm ? For I find it 
is spoken and written both ways. How does it differ from 

WARM? 

"The beryes of iuniper or galbanum beaten to powder and dronke 
with LUKE WARMED wyne." — Byrtli of Manhjnde^ fol. 29. p. 3. • 

" Ye maye use in the stede of wyne, luke warme mylke." 

Ihid. fol. 38. p. 2. 

"Then shall ye geue it her with luke wakme water." 

Ihid. fol. 50. p. 1. 

"In the wynter with hote water, in the sommer with luke warme 
water." — Ih'id. fol. 55. p. 1. 

" Quhare the vyle fleure euer lew warme was spred 
With recent slauchter of the blude newlie schede." 

Douglas, booke 8, p. 247. 

" Besyde the altare blude sched and sJcalit newe 
Beand lew warme thare ful fast did reik." Ibid. p. 243. 

jj. Luke warm ") The Anglo-Saxon plajc, tepidus (which 
Lew warm 5 we corruptly pronounce and write luke) 



552 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART 11, 

ia the past participle of placian^ tepere^ tepescere. And lew_, 
in the Anglo-Saxon J^lip and J^leop, is the past participle of 
J^lipan^ J^leopan^ tepere^ fovere. . Nor need we travel with 
Skinner to the Greek \vco; "quia tepor humores resolvit et 
cutim aperit : '' nor with Junius to ')(Kiapo^ from ^caivo). 

To say luke or lew warm is merely saying warm-warm. 
And that it is a modern pleonasm^ the following passage in 
the third chapter of the Apocalyps will, I think, convince 
you. 

In the modern Version it stands : — 

" I know tliy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot : I would thou 
wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art luke-warm, and neither 
cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth," 

In the old Version, which is called WickliflPe^s, it is thus 
given :— 

" I woot thy werkis, for nether thou art cold nether thou art hote. I 
wolde thou were cold or hoot, but for thou art lew, and nether cold 
nether hoot, I shal bigynne for to caste the out of my mouth." 

In the Version of Edward the sixth, it runs thus : — 

*' I know thy workes, that thou art nether colde nor hotte : I wolde 
tliou were colde or hote. So then, because thou arte betwene both, 
and nether cold nor hote, I wyll spewe thee out of my mouth." 

Plough (A.-S. plo^ and plou). Is the past participle of 
Plejjan, incumbere. % 

"No man sendinge his hond to the ploug, and biholdinge agen, is 
able to the rewme of God." — Luke, cap. ix. v. 62. 

Our English verb To Ply, is no other than plejjan. 

"Pfieoj^'c ne beo hunta. ne hapecejie. ne rseplejie, ac plesge (in- 
cumbat) on hijr bocum." — Ca)iones sub Ed (jar o, E. 64. 

p /in Loues Labours Lost, p. 144. Shakespeare uses 

p \ the word To Keele. 

" Then^iiightly sings the staring owle 
To-whit, to-who, 
A merie note, 
While greasie lone doth keele the pot." 

On this passage Dr. Farmer tells us — "To Keele the pot. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 553 

is^ to cool ; but in a particular manner : It is — To stir the pot- 
tage with the ladle, to prevent the boiling over." 

Mr. Steevens too thinks that Keele means cooling, in a par- 
ticular manner. But his manner differs from Dr. Farmer^s. — 
He says — " Mr. Lambe observes, in his notes or^ the ancient 
metrical history of the battle of Flodden, that it is a common 
thing in the North, for a maid servant to take out of a boiling 
pot a wheen, i. e. a small quantity, viz. a porringer or two of 
broth, and then to fill up the pot with cold water. The broth 
thus taken out is called the Keeling wheen. In this manner 
greasy loan Keeled the pot.'^ 

That Mr. Malone should repeat all this, is nothing wonder- 
ful; it is perfectly to his taste. But it is really lamentable, 
that two such intelligent men as Dr. Farmer and Mr. Steevens 
should expose themselves thus egregiously. Who, or what, in- 
formed them, that To Keele meant To stir with a ladle, or, To 
take out a porringer or two ? 

There are very numerous instances of the use of the word To 
Keel, without the least allusion to ladles oy porringers. 

*' Sende Lazarus, that he dippe the laste part of his fynger in watir and 
KELE my tunge." — Imke, cap. 16. v. 24. 
" To the louers Guide wrote, 
And taught, if loue be to hote, 
In what maner it shulde akele." 

Gower, lib. 4. fol. 77. p. 2. col. 2. 

In the Castel of Helth, by Syr Thomas Elyot, book 3. fol. 73. 
he says — " Onyons, lekes, fynally all thynges whyche heateth to 
moche, keleth to moch, or drieth to moche." And Malone 
himself knew, that in Marston's What you will, was the follow- 
ing passage, " Faith, Doricus, thy braine boyles ; Keel it. 

Keel it, or all the fat ^s i^ the fire." 

So in the Vision of Pierce Ploughman, 

" Vesture, from cheyle to saue." Pass. 2. fol. 4. p. 2. 

" And the carfull may crye and carpen at the gate 

Both a hungerd and a furste, and for chels quake." 

Pass. 11. fol. 46. p. 1. 
" Bothe hungry and a gale." Pass. 19. fol. 103. p. 1. 

" And syth they chosen ciiele and cheitif poucrtie 

Let them chewe as they chosen." Pass. 21. fol. 115. p. 1. 



554 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" Do almesse for'them, and by almes dede, by masses syngynge, and 
holy prayers, refresshe them in theyr paynes, and kele the fyre about 
theym." — Diues and Pauper, 9th Comm. cap. Tl. 

"To KELE somwhat theyr hygh courage." Fabian, parte 5. ch. 140. 

In the aljipve instances can there be any employment for the 
ladle or porringer ? 

In truths the verb To Keel, i. e. the Anglo-Saxon Lelan, 

refrigerare, is a general term ; confined to and signifying no 

particular manner. And of this verb Eelan ; chill (A.-S. 

Dele) and cool (A.-S. Dol) are the past tense : and Coleb, CoFb, 

COLD (A.-S. Eealb) is the past participle. 

Nesh ■) Minshew derives nice from the Latin Nitidus : 

Nice ) Junius from the French Niais. It is merely the 
Anglo-Saxon J^nej-c, difierently pronounced and written ; and is 
the past participle of J^nej-cian, mollire. « 

" Mine herte for joye doth bete 
Him to beholde, so is he godely freshe, 
It semeth for love his herte is tendre and nesshe." 

Court of Love, in Urry's Edition of Chaucer. 
*' So that no step of hym was sene in the nesshe fenne or more that 
he passed thorough." — Fabian, parte 6. ch. 172. 

Sleet — Is the past participle ]4e-eb, jieeb, j'leefc; of flean, 
projicere; and has n© connexion (as Johnson imagined) with 
the Danish Slet, which means smooth, polished, 

*' Flying, behind them, shot 



Sharp sleet of arrowy show'rs against the face 

Of their pursuers." Faradlse Begained, book 3. v. 324. 

Hoar — Anglo- Sax. j^aji^ is the past tense and past participle 
of )^ apian, canescere. 

•' They toke houed brede in theyr scryppes, and soure wyne in theyr 
botels, and loded asses with olde hored brede in olde sackes." 

Diues and Pauper, 2d Comm. cap. 20. 

Addle ^ Though Mer. Casaubon and Junius would send us 
Ail / for ail^ to aXveov, moerore affici, or to aXyecv, dolere ; 
Idle fand for idle, to vdXo<;, nugre; and for ill, to the 
III J Greek tXXos-, strabo ; or even to the Hebrew ; 
I am persuaded that these are only one word, differently pro- 
nounced and written : and that it is the past participle of the 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 555 

Anglo-Saxon verb TCiblian^ segrotare^ exinanire^ irritum facere, 
corrumpere. 

" If you loue an addle egge, as well as you loue an idle head, you 
would eate chickens i' th' shell." — Troylus and Cressida. 

ADDLE-pated, and ADDLE-brained,, are common expressions. 

" You said tliat idle weeds are fast in growth." — JRlckard 3d. p. 186. 
*' III weids waxes well." — Mai/'s Scottish Proverbs, p. 295. 

Addle becomes ail^ as idle becomes ill by sliding over the 
D in pronunciation. 

Dam ■) The past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb Dseman, 
Dumb ] Demman, obturare, obstruere, To Dam. 

" Now will I DAM up this thy yawning mouth 
For swallowing the treasure of the realm." 

U Part Henry VI. p. 137. col. 2. 

As we have already seen that Barren means Barred; and 
that Blind means Blinned or Stopped; so dumb means obtu- 
ratum, ohstructum, Dammed. And therefore, when those who 
have been dumb recover their speech, their mouths are said to 
be opened ; the dam being, as it were, removed. 

Though these three words. Barren, Blind, and Dumb, are now 
by custom confined to their present respective application ; i. e. 
to the womb, the eyes, and the mouth; they were originally 
general terms, and generally applicable ; as all the other 
branches of those verbs. To Bar, To Blin, and To Dam, still 
are: and, having all one common meaning, viz. Obstruction, 
if custom had so pleased, they might, in their application, very 
fairly have changed places. 

So when B. Jonson, in his Poetaster, act 1. sc. 3. says, — 
" Nay, this ^tis to have your ears Dam'd up to good counsell.^^ 
— He might have said — " This His to have dumb ears ; or, ears 
Dumb to good counsell.^^ 

In Antony and Cleopatra, p. 344. Shakespeare writes, 

" So he nodded, 

And soberly did mount an armc-gaunt stccde, 
Who neigh'd so hye, that wliat I would haue spoke, 
Was beastly dumbe by him." 

Mr. Theobald here alters the text, and instead of dumbe. 



556 or ABSTRACTION. [part II. 

reads dumbed. This reading Mr. Malone approves, adopts, and 
calls a correction. But there needs here no alteration. Dumbe 
is the past tense of Daeman, Demman, and means Dammed, 
i. e. Obstructed, or stopped. — " What I would have spoke, was, 
in a beastly manner, obstructed by him.^^ 

Dumb was formerly written dome and dum ; without the b. 

" He became so confuse he cunneth not loke, 
And as dome as death." 

Vision of P. Floughnan, pass. 11. fol. 47. p. 3. 

" I tell you that which you yourselues do know, 
Shew you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor poor dum mouths, 
And bid them speake for me." Julius Casar, p. 133. col. 3. 

And Junius, whose authority may be much better reHed on 
than his judgement, tells us, and bids us remark it — " Quod in 
Cantabrigiensis publicse bibliothecse codice msto melioris notae, 
Matth, xii. 2.2. Luc. i. 22. bum scribitur.^' 

Dull") Dull (or as it is in the Anglo-Saxon, bol) hebes ; is 

Dolt J derived by Mer. Casaubon from hovko^j servus. 
^'Notissima (says he) est Aristotelis opinio, 8ovXov<; esse a 
natura, qui scilicet kolvcovovo-l tov Xoyov roaovrov, oaov aiaOa- 
veaOai, aWa fir} e^eov : quos etiam ad corporis ministeria natos 
a bestiis usu /ni/cpov irapaXKaTreiv sancit." 

Skinner would derive dull from Dolian, pati, sustinere, 
tolerare; — " Qui enim obtusi sensus sunt, injurias et quaslibet 
vexationes sequiore animo patiuntur." But dull, bol, is the 
regular past tense of bpelian, bpolan, hebere, hebetare. And 
dolt, i. e. Dulled (or bol-eb, boFb, bole) is the past participle 
of the same verb. 

" Oh gull, oh dolt, as ignorant as durt." — Othello, p.* 337. 

Though the verb. To Dull, is now out of fashion, it was 
formerly in good use. 

" I dulle under your disciplyne." 

Bom. of the Rose, fol. 143. p. 1. col. 1. 
" Por though the best harpour on lyue 
Wold on the best sowned ioly harpe 
That euer was, with al his fyngers fyue 
Touche aye o strynge, or aye o warble hai-pe, 
Were his uayles poynted neuer so sharpe, 
It shulde make euery wight To dulle." 

Troijlus, boke 3. fol. 168. p. 1. col. 3. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 557 

" For elde, that in my spiiite dulleth me, 
Hath of endytiiig al the subtelte 
Welnigh berafte out of my remembraunce." 

Complaynt of Venus, fol. 344. p. 1. col. 2. 

" Myrth and gladnesse conforteth men in Goddes seruyce, and 
heuynesse dulleth and letteth all maner lykinges." 

Bines and Paii^per, 3d Comm. cap. 18. 

"Her syght sholde haue be derked, and her herynge sholde haue 
DULLED more and more." 

A Morning Itemembraunce of Margarete Countesse of Rychemondey 
By J. Fyssher, Bishop of Rochester. 

[" I demamide one thyng ; whan myne understandyng is dulled in 
that I haue to dooe, and whan my memory is troubled in that I haue 
to determyne, and whan my bodye is compassed with dolours, and whan 
my heart is charged with thou^htes, and whan I am without knowlege, 
and whan I am set about with perils ; wher can I be better accompanied 
than with wise men, or els redyng among bokes ? " 

Marcus Aurelius, P^'inted hy Berthelet. 
London, 1559. sect. 30.] 
" Sluggyshnes dulleth the body." 
" Sorowe dulleth the wylle." 

Castell ofHelth, fol. 44. p. 2. and fol. 64. p. 2. 

[" Who am myself attach'd with weariness, 
To the dulling of my spirits." 

The Tempest, Malone's edit. vol. 1. part 2. p. 65.] 

" As well his lord may stoope t' advise with him. 
And be prescribed by him, in affaires 
Of highest consequence, when he is dull'd 
Or wearied with the lesse." 

B, Jonson, Magnetick Lady, act 1. sc. 7. 

" Cunning calamity. 

That others gross wits uses to refine. 

When I most need it, duls the edge of mine." 

Beaumont and Fletcher, Honest Man^s Fortune. 

[" ^ir Martin. There 's five shillings for thee : What, we must en- 
courage good wits sometimes. 

Warner. Hang your white pelf : Sure, sir, by your largess, you 
mistake me for Martin Parker, the ballad-maker ; your covetousness has 
offended my muse, and quite dull'd her." 

Sir Martin Mar -all : By Dry den, act 5. sc. 1.] 



558 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Grub (rKX^^) ^^^ P^^* tense and therefore past participle 
ofrKAEAN, fodere. 

Grudge, written by Chaucer grutche, gruche, and in some 

copies GROCHE. 

" A lytel yre in his herte ylafte 
He gan to grutchen and blamen it a l3'te." 

Reues Prol. fol. 15. p. 1. col. 3. 

" At thende I had the best in eche degre 
By sleight or force, or by some maner thing, 
As by contynuall murmure or grutchtng." 

Wife of Bathes Frol. fol. 36. p. i. coL 1. 

"What ayleth you to grutche thus and grone? " — Ibid. col. 2. 

" And sayne the Pope is not worth a pease 
To make the people ayen him gruche " — or groche. 

PlougJimans Tale, fol. 99. p. 1. col. 2. 

Mer. Casaubon derives this word from yoyyv^co, murmuro. 

Minshew, from the Latin grunnire. 

Junius, from ypv^eiv, hiscere, mutire. 

Skinner, from the French Gruger, briser. And Gruger 
from cruciari : "quia qui alicui invidet, aliena felicitate cru- 
ciatur." 

S. Johnson will have it either from the French Gruger, or 
from the Welch Grugnach, or from the Scotch Grunighy or — 
rather from Grudgeons I — " Grudgeons being (as he says) the 
part of corn that remains after the fine meal has passed the 
sieve.^' 

A GRUDGE is the past participle of J)peopian (Ere-hpeop- 
jan) )^peoppian, Ire-hpeoppian, dolere, ingemiscere, poeni- 
tere. 

Drudge — (Dpooj, Dpuje) The past tense and past participle 
of Dpeojan, De-bpeojan, agere, tolerare, pati, sufferre. 
Djieojenb, the present participle. 

Smooth — (pmae'S) The past participle of jme^ian, polire, 
planare. 

Junius derives this word from a-fiaco, afieo), ct^ko : and Skinner 
from /juaBo^i. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 559 

Mad ") is merely OOsett^ OOaeb (d for t), the past tense and 
Matto j past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb GOetan, 
somniare, To Mete, To Dream. 

The verb, To Mete, was formerly in common use. 

" I fell eftsones a slepe, and sodainly me mette." ^ 

Vision of P. TlougJiman, pass. 20. fol. 103. p. %. 
" And eke I sayd, I mette of him aU nyght 

And al was fals, I Dreined of him right naught." 

Wife of Bathes Frol. fol. 36. p. 2. col. 2. 
" And whan that he in chambre was alone. 

He downe on his beddes fete him sette, 

And fii'ste he gan to sike, and efte to grone, 

And thought aye on her so withouten lette, 

That as he satte and woke,* his spirite mete 

That he her saugh." — Troylus, boke 1. fol. 159. p. 1. col. 1. 

'^ As he satte and woke, his spirite mete that he her saugh/^ 
— This I take to be a clear, though not a physiological, descrip- 
tion of Madness, 

This is not the place to enter into a physiological inquiry con- 
cerning the nature of madness and of dreaming; in order to 
shew the propriety of the name, as I have explained it. But I 
may give you a short extract from the ingenious observations on 
Insanity, by Mr. John Haslam. 1798. 

" Some who have perfectly recovered from this disease, and who are 
persons of good understanding and liberal education, describe the state 
they were in, as resembling a Dream." 



^ \_Mette is here used impersonally, as the case of the pronoun shows. 
See the instances in Lye, and the Additional Note on English Imper- 
sonal Verbs. — Ed.] 

^ [" Dubbio cosi s' aggira 
Da un torbido riposo 
Chi si desto talor : 
Che desto ancor delira 
Era le sognate forme ; 
Che non sa ben se dorme, 
Non sa se veglia ancor." 

Metastasio, La Clemenza di Tito, att. 2. sc. 7. 

" gli amanti 

Sognano ad occhi aperti." — Ibid. Zenobia, att. 2. sc. 1.] 



560 OF ABSTRACTION. [PAIIT If. 

And our valuable friend Mr. Rogers^ in his beautiful poem. 
The Pleasures of Memory, has this note : 

" When sleep has suspended the organs of sense from their office, 
memory not only supplies the mind with images, but assists in their 
combination. And even in madness itself, when the soul is resigned 
over to the tyranny of a distempered imagination, she revives past per- 
ceptions, and awakens that train of thought which was formerly most 
familiar." 

The Italian matto, is this same Anglo-Saxon participle 
QOddttj with the Italian terminating vowel. The decided 
opinion of Menage and Junius, that matto is derived from the 
Greek fjLaTai,o<i, is overruled in my mind, by the consideration of 
the time when the word matto was first introduced into the 
Italian language : for the Greek derivatives, in that language^ 
proceed to it through the Latin. And in the Latin there is 
nothing which resembles matto. 

Smug^ — is the past participle of Smsejan, pmeajan, delibe- 
rare, studere, considerare. Applied to the person or to dress, 
it means studied ; that on which care and attention have been 
bestowed. 

" I will die brauely, like a smugge bridegroom." — Lear, p. 304. 
*' A beggar, that was us'd to come so smug upon the mart." 

Merchant of Venice, p. 173. 
" A young SMUG, handsome holiness has no fellow." 

B. and Fletcher, The Filgrim. 
" Fie, Sir, so angry upon your wedding day ! 
Go, SMUG yom'self, the maid will come anon." 

B. and Fletcher, Women Fleas' d. 
" Go in, and dress yourself smug, and leave the rest to me." 

Wycherly, Love in a JFood, act 4. sc. 1. 

Proud (Anglo-Saxon Ppuc) The past participle of Pjiycian, 
superbire. 

Safe — formerly written saffe ; The past participle of the 
verb To Save. 



^ " E literis vocis Koa-fios fieri potuit o-fioKos ; atque inde Smnck. Sod 
Ttalis Smoccare est euniiigerc : quasi Exinucare. Ita nimirum solent 
uti s, tanquam prajpositioue inseparabili, ex Se Latino ; quasi Semuc- 
care, mucum separare. Sed tarn multis non est opus : cum facilliina 
derivatione peti possit ex ayMOi, afiecj, (r/xco, a-^r)x<^, abstergo, detergo." 
— Junius. [Sec note on Snite, p. 395. — Ki).] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 56 L 

" He hir wymple fonde blodie, 
And wende a best had hir slayne, 
Where as hym ought be right fayne, 
For she was saffe right beside." 

Gower, lib. 2. fol. 56. p. 2. col. 1. 

" Than his dyscyples sayd to Cryste, Lorde, who may than be save ? " 
Bines and Pauper, Of Holy Foiierte, cap. 5. 



Low ^ j^Q^ ^-j^ Dutch Laag) is the past participle of the 

LowN 

LowT 



f Anglo-Saxon verb Licjan^ jacere, cubare 



Of this past tense (according to their common custom) our 
ancestors made the verb To Low : or To make Low. 

" Foi-tune hath euer be muable, 
And maie no while stonde stable, 
For nqwe it hieth, nowe it loweth." 

Gower, lib. 8. fol. 177. p. 1. col. 1. 

" The god of Loue, ah benedicite, 
Howe mighty and howe great a lorde is he. 
For he can make of lowe hertes hye, 
And of hye lowe. 

He can make within a lytel stounde 
Of sicke folke, hole, fresshe and sounde, 
And of hole he can make seke. 
Shortly al that euer he wol he may, 
Agaynst hym dare no wyght say nay, 
For he can glad and greue whom hym lyketh. 
And who that he wol, he loweth or syketh.^^ 

CucJcowe and Nyghtyngale, fol. 350. p. 2. col. 2. 

" The prayer of hym that loweth hym in his prayer, thyrleth the 
clowdes." — Diues and Pawper^ 1st Comm. cap. 15. 

" Whan he is waxen and roted in piyde and in mysuse of lyuynge, it 
is full harde to lowe hym or to amende hym." 

Ibid. 4th Comm. cap. 10c 

" They lyue forth in pryde and not low^e them to God, ne pray to 
God for helpe." — Ibid. 5th Comm. cap. 3. 

" For al this Adam repented hym not, ne wolde axe mercy, ne lowe 
him." — Ibid. 6th Comm. cap. 25. 

2 o 



562 OP ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

Of this verb To Low, the past participle is indilBferently 
either Low-en^ Low'n, lown; or Low-ed, Low'd, lowt, (t 
for D.) 

" We should have both Lord and lown, if the peeuish baggage would 
but giue way to customers." 

Pericles Frince of Tyre, act 4. sc. 6. 

" I haue helved a lady, 

The princesse of this country, and the ayi-e on't 

Eeuengingly enfeebles me, or could this carle, 

A very drudge of natures, haue subdu'de me 

In my profession ? Knighthoods and Honors (bonie 

As I weare mine) are titles but of scorne. 

If that thy gentry (Britaine) go before 

This LOWT, as he exceeds our lords, the oddes 

Is, that we scarse are men, and you are goddes." 

Cymbeline, p. 393. col. 1. 

You will observe that^ of this participle lowt, we have again 
made another verb,, viz. To Lc/wt, To do or To bear one^s self 
as the Lowed person, i. e. the low t, does. 

Slack ^ 

Slouch [ (in the Anglo-Saxon flsec, j'leac, jloj, j'laep, fleap, 
Slough | j-lap) are all the same past tense and therefore past 
Slug j' participle (differently pronounced and written) of 
Slow the Anglo-Saxon verb pleacian, pleacpan, jdacian 
Sloven (a broad) tardare, remittere, relaxare, pigrescere. 
Slut J 

" The noblest of the Greekes that there were 
Upon her shuldcrs caryed the here 
With slake pace." — Knyghtes Tale, fol. 10. p. 2. col. 2. 

Slouch, jdsec — (ch for k) i. e. a slow (pace.) 
Slough, ploj — (gh for cii) i. e. slow (water.) 
Slug, floj — (g for k) i. e. slow (reptile.) 
Slow, jdap — (w^ for g.) 

Such changes of pronunciation are perpetual and uniform 
throughout the whole language. 

Slow-en, slouen, sloven ; and slow-ed, slow^'d, sloud, 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 563 

SLOUT, slut; are the past participles of the verb 81a)?iaii, To 
Slow, i. e. To make Slow, or cause to be Slow} There is no 
reason, but the fashion_, for the distinction which is at present 
made between sloven and slut, by applying the former of these 
words to males only, and the latter only to females : and we are 
sure that distinctfon did not prevail formerly : for Gower and 
Chaucer apply slut to males. 

" Among these other of sloutes kinde 

Which all labour set behinde, 

And hateth ah besines. 

There is yet one, which Idelnes 

Is cleped. 

In wynter doth he nought for colde, 

In gomer male he nought for hete ; 

So, whether that he frese or swete. 

Or be he in, or be he out. 

He woll ben ydeU all about : 

For he ne woll no trauaile take 

To ride for his ladies sake." Gower, hb. 3. fol. 69. p. 1. col. 1. 

" Why is thy lorde so slotlychb,^ I the pray, 

And is of power better clothes to bey ? " 

Prol. of Ohanons Yema7t, fol. 59. p. 2. col. 2. 

Lore — The past participle of Laepan, docere. 

Home — The past participle of K^seman, coire. 

Hone — (petrified wood) the past participle of t)senan, 
lapidescere. 

[Gown — from J^ynan, Ire-hynan, humiliare, To bring down 
to the ground. Past participle Irehon, Irehun. N.B. Anglo- 
Saxon substantive J^ynS, i. e. that which humbleth, or bringeth 
down to the ground. 



^ [" Lookt on by ech the stately ladle goes, 

But lookes on none, and to the king she came. 
Nor, for he angry seemes, one steppe she slowes." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, Translated hy R. C. 
p. 58. cant. 2. st. 19. 
" Mirata da ciascun passa, e non mira 
L' altera donna, e innanzi al re se n' viene. 
Ne, perche irato il veggia, il pie ritira."] 
^ Mr. Urry reads slottish ; and Mr. Tyrwhitt, sluttish. 

2 o 2 



564 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART IT. 

Italian, gonna. Menage says well — " Lo tengo d^ origine 
Tedesca; leggendosi in Luitprando Gunata, id est, pellicea 
Saxonia. U ebbero gP Italiani da' Longabardi; e i Greci 
moderni da gP Italiani.'^] 

Loan — The past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb J^lsenau, 
Lsenan, To Lend, formerly written To Lene. 

" Yf a man lene avvaye an other mannes good without assent of him." 
— *' In the LENYNGE he useth an other mannes good ayenst his wyl." — 
Diues and Pauper, 7th Comm. cap. 8. 

"Yf wynnynge come frely to the lener for his lenynge without 
couenaunt." — " Yeue ye your lone hopynge noo wynnynge." — " The 
usurer selleth togydre the thynge that he leneth." — Ibid. cap. 24. 

Foam — psem ; the past participle of Fseman, spumare.^ 

Broad •>. 

Board /are the past tense and past participle of Bp8eban_, 

Brid r dilatare, propalare, dispalare, ampliare. 

Bird J 

Fowl. As Bird, so fowl, (A.-S. j:u;5el,) by a similar but not 
quite so easy and common a metathesis, is the past participle of 
Fbojan, pioljan, pojlan, volare. 

Shock — The past participle of Scacan, To Shake, 

" And after that himselfe he shoke 
Wherof that all the halle quoke." 

Gower, lib. 6. fol. 139. p. 1. col. 2. 
" In the dyenge of Ihesu the erth groned and shoke." 

Nycodemus Gospell, ch. 8. 
" Whan I herde the commaundement of his worde, I trembled and 
shoke for drede." — Ibid. ch.l5. 

" The erthe shoke so and trembled that they SotiJce downe in to helle." 
— Diues and Pauper y 6th Coram, cap. 16. 

" The sterry heuen me thought shoke with the shout." 

Skelton, p. 57. 



^ "Fome, quibusdam videtur dicta quasi Tome ; quod sit quasi quidam 
vomitus aquae violento motu concitatae ac veluti ferventis. Ubi notandum 
quod Chaucero in Angl. translatione Boethianae Cousolationis, Fomes 
sunt spum<c. * Setiger sp?imis humeros notavit.' * The bristled Bore 
marked with Vomes the shulders of Hercules.' " — Junius. 

Skinner thinks paem is from the Latin Fumus. " Spuma enim ra- 
rescens instar fumi vel nebulae est; ccrte proximum ei raritatis gradum 
obtinet." 



I 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 565 

" The frere arose, 
But I suppose 
Amased was his hed, 
He SHOKE his eares, 
And from grete feares 
He thought hym well a fled." Sir T. More*s JForkes. 

Doom — The past participle of the Anglo- Saxon verb Deman, 
judicare, censere^ decernere, To Deem, 

" Whan I Beme domes, and do as trouth teacheth." 

Vision of IB. Ploughman, pass. 16. fol. 77. p. 1. 

" Than sayd Pilate, Take hym in to your synagoge and deme thare 
on hym your lawe." — Nycodemus Gospell, ch. 3. 

" God ruleth, demeth and gou^meth all mankynde &c. — whoos 
DOMES and ordenaunces passe mannes wytte." 

Diues and Fauper, 1st Comm. cap. 19. 

" None of us can tel what deth we be demed to." 

Sir T. 31ore, De Quatuor Novissimis, p. 84. 

Roof — In the Anglo-Saxon J^jioj:, the past participle of 
J^jisepnan, sustinere. 

Minshew, Junius and Skinner derive it from the Greek 
opo(j)o<;. 

Woof") are the past tense and past participle of pepan^ texere, 

Weft J obvolvere, tegere. To Weave. 

Proof "^^ The past tense and past participle of the verb To 

Reproof j Preve and To Repreve. 

" Euery semaunt is bounden to warne his lorde of the harme that is 
done to his lorde in his ofFyce for good fayth and saluacyon of his owne 
persone &c. yf he can preue them he is bounde to telle them to his lorde, 
yf his lord is pacyent and resonable and not to cruell, and yf he cannot 
preue them he is not bounde to telle them." 

Diues and Pauper, 2d Comm. cap. 13. 

" Commende vertues and despyse vyces, Chese truthe and lette false- 
hode, commende heuen blysse, and ghoostly thynge^ and repreue 
pompe and pryde of this worlde." — Ibid, 5th Comm. cap. 10. 

Breed"\ 

-p. > The past participle of Bpeban, fovere. 

Brat J 



566 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Saw — (Any thing, sometliing) said. The past tense and past 
participle of Ssejan, J'ejan^, j-ecjan, dicere, To Say. 

*' Experyence accordeth witk this sawe of the apostle." 

Diues and Pauper, Of Holy Pouerte, cap. 1. 

*'By comon sawes of clerkes God in the fyrste commaundement 
forbedeth thre pryncypal synnes." — Ihid. 1st Comm. cap. 37. 

"Than they that shal be dampned shall say a sawe of sorowe that 
neuer shall haue ende," — Ibid. 8th Comm. cap. 15. 

" Some doctours of Law- 
Some learned in other saw." SJcelton, p. 203. 

[" So Love is lord of all the world by right, 

And rules their creatures by his powrfull saw." 

Spenser, Colin Clouts come Jwme againe.'] 

" Yea from the table of my memory 
He wipe away all triviall fond records. 
All SAWES of bookes." Hamlet, p. 358. 

" When all aloud the winde doth blow. 
And coffing drownes the parsons saw." 

Loues Labours Lost, p. 144. 

Q I So (fo^ sa) the past participle of f aejan. So, i. e. in 

rp > the SAID manner. 

^ \ Such — So each : i. e. in the said manner Each, 

QUALISV 

Talis and qualis are compound words : the first part of 
these compounds are the Greek re and Kau, which both signify 
And: — Tf-illius — A:a^-illius_, i. e. and of this — and of that.] 
Tale "^A tale, the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon 
Re-tail J verb Tellan, something told. To sell by tale, 
i. e. by numeration, not by weight or measure, but by the 
number told. — Retail, told over again. 

Hand *) Hint, something taken. Hand, that limb by which 
Hint > things are taken. The past tense and past participle 
Handle j of J^entan, capere. To take hold of. 

" And with that word, his sckerand swerd als tyte 
Hynt out of scheith, the cabyll in tua gan smyte." 

Douglas, booke 4. p. 120. 

" This sayand with richt hand has scho hynt 
Tlie liare, and cuitis in tua or that scho stynt." Ibid. p. 124. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 567 

So HANDLE or Haud-del, is a small part taken liold of. 

" He would gladly catche holde of some small ha.ndell to kepe hys 
money fast, rather then help his frendes in their necessitie." 

Sir T. More, Supplicacioii of Soules, p. 330. 

Fang ) Fang, the past tense and past participle of Fenjan, 

Finger ) capere, prehendere. 

Finger, i. e. jienjep, quod prehendit. 

Speech — Any thing spoken, and the faculty by which any 
thing is spoken. The past tense and past participle fpsec, 
fpsece, of fpecan, To Speak, The indifferent pronunciation 
of CH or CK pervades the whole language. 

Fetch, (A.-S. psec) is the past tense and past participle of 
Feccan, fraude acquirere, adducere. 

[" Yet since so obstinate grew their desire, 
On a new fetch (t' accord them) he relide." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, cant. 5. st. 73.] 

Thack ) (A.-S. Dae) is the past tense and past participle of 
Thatch j Decan, tegere. 

" Thy turphie mountaines, where Hue nibling sheepe, 
And flat medes tbetchd with stouer, them to kepe." 

Tempest, act 4. sc. 1. p. 14. 

" A well-built gentleman ; but poorly thatght." 

B. and Fletcher, Wit without Money, act 1. sc. 1. 
Lace ^ 

Lace and Latch are the past tense and past 
L participle of Laeccan, Lsecjan, Lseccean, pre- 
hendere, apprehendere. 

v/LXJTCH 

Clutches^ 

*' A stronger than I shal come afth me, of whom I, kneelinge,- am not 
worthi to unbynde the lace of hise shoon." — Mark, ch. 1. 

" There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose 
shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose." — Ibid. v. 7. 

" His hatte Hinge at hys backe by a lace." 

Prol. to Chanons Yeoman, fol. 59. p. 1. col. 3. 

[" Therewith in haste his liehnet gan unlace." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 3. st. 37. 



568 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" There the fond flie, entangled, strugled long, 
Himselfe to free thereout ; but all in vaine. 
For, striving more, the more in laces strong 
Himselfe he tide, and wrapt his winges twaine 
In lymie snares." Spenser's Muiopotmos, st. 54.] 

The LATCH of a door_, or that by which the door is caught, 
latched, or held^ is often likewise called a catch. 

" If thou wilt be gracious to do good as the gospel techith. 
And biloue the among low men, so shalt thou latch grace." 

Vision of fierce Ploughman, pass. 7. fol. 34. p. 2. 

" As who so layeth lynes for to latche foules." Ihid. fol. 26. p. 1. 

" The same I say forsoth, by al such priestes, 
That haue nether cunning ne kynne, but a crowne one, 
And a title a tale of nought, to line by at his mischife ; 
He hath more beleue, I leue, to latch through crown 
Cure than for kennynge." Ihid. pass. 12. fol. 57. p. 2. 

" And whan the find and the flesh forth with the worlde 

Manacen behinde me my frute for to FetcJie, 

Than liberum arbitrium latcheth the first polante." 

Ibid. pass. 17. fol. 87. p. 2. 
" What shepe that is full of wuUe 

Upon his backe thei tose and puUe 

Whyle ther is any thynge to pille, &c. 

Whiche is no good shepeherdes dede, 

And upon this also men sayn 

That fro the Lease, whiche is plaine. 

In to the breres thei forcatche, 

Here of for that thei wolden lache 

With suche duresse, and so bereue 

That shal upon the thornes leue 

Of wool, whiche the brere hath tore." Goioery Frol. fol. 3. p. 1. 

" As Ouid in his boke recordeth 
How Polyphemus whilom wrought, • 

When that he Galathe besought 
Of loue, whiche he male not latche." 

Ibid. lib. 2. fol. 27. p. 2. col. 2. 

" Of love which he male not latche ; i. e.'^ says Skinner, 

" amoris quern dimittere non potest : amoris sc. inextinguibilis. 

a Fr. G. Lascher, laxare, remittere. Vir Rev. dictum putat 

pro Catch, Verum quoniam iste metaplasmus nusquam, 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 569 

quod scianij in Germ, et recentioribus dialectis occurrit, mallem 
secundum etymon pet ere a Fr. G. Laisser, relinquere : i. e. 
Amor qui relinqui seu demitti nequit : vel a Teut. et Belg. 
Leschen, extinguere_, delere : i. e. Amor, ut dictum est supra_, 
inextinguibilis et indelebilisj' 

Skinner^s mistake in the etymology of the word To Latch, 
caused his mistake in the meaning of the preceding lines ; in 
which Gower does not speak of the love of Polyphemus ; but 
of the love of Galathe_, which he besought_, and could not get^ 
could not take hold of, could not Latch, 

" Loue wyl none other byrde catche, 

Though he set eyther nette or latche." 

Rom. of the Rose, fol. 127. p. 3. col. 2. 
" Thre other thynges that great solace 

Doth to hem that be in my lace." Ibid. fol. 133. p. 1. col. 2. 

" So are they caught in loues lace," Ibid. fol. 144. p. 1. col. 2. 

*' Loue that hath the so faste 

Knytte and bounden in his lace." Ibid. p. 2. col. 2. 

[" Tho pumie stones I hastly hent, 
And threw ; but nought avayled : 
Prom bough to bough he lepped light, 
And oft the pumies latched." 

Spenser : STiepJieards Calender, March. 
" Which when the kidde stouped downe to catch, 
He popt him in, and his basket did latch." Ibid. May.'\ 

" I haue words 

That would be howl'd out in the desert ayre, 
Where hearing should not latch them." 

Macbeth, act 4. sc. 3. p. 147. 

Junius, concurring with Minshew, says — " Latch magnam 
videtur habere affinitatem cum B. Letse vel Litse, nexus, laque- 
olus, quo aliquid continetur ne excidat. M. Casaubonus Angl. 
Latch per metathesin profluxisse putat ex ar/KvXcovJ^ 

Skinner and Lye concur that it is — " satis manifeste a Lat. 
Laqueus." 

" Laqueus Nunnesio placet esse a Xvyof;, id est, vitex, salix ; 
ut mutetur u in a. Malim a Lao;, quod fraudem notat, Festo 
teste. Vel ab Hebreeo.^^ — G. I. Vossius. 

Isaac Vossius dissents from his father, and says it is — 
"omniuo a KXoios." 1 am persuaded that the Latin La- 



570 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

queus itself (as well as the Italian Laccio) is this same past par- 
ticiple Lace or Lacj of Lseccean^ Lsecjan. 

Luck is derived by Minshew, " a X<x%09_, i. e. Sors, fortuna/^ 
By Junius — "a 'B. Geluck, quod valde affine est Grseco y\v/cv, 
dulce ; quod nihil mortalibus videatur suavius, quam negotia 
sua bene feliciterque administrare/^ " Aliter de vocabuli ety- 
mologia M. Casaubon, ^Xcuyxavco, sortior, sortito obtineo. To 
Xa^ov, quod sorte obtigit. Inde Luck et Luckie. Quamquam 
dubito utrum ex eadem sint origine, et non potius Luckie sit ex 
Xevfco^j candiduSj albus.' '^ 

But LUCK (good or bad) is merely the same participle, and 
means (something, any thing) caught. Instead of saying that a 
person has had good Luck, it is not uncommon to say, — he has 
had a good catch. 

Clutch is also the past participle of Ere-lseccean, capere, 
arripere. 

" Is this a dagger which I see before me. 

The handle toward my hand ? Come, let me clutch thee." 

Macbeth, act 2. sc. 1. p. 136. col. 1. 
" But age with his stealing steps 

Hath caught me in his clutch." Hamlet, p. 277. 

So clutches, i. e. Clutchers {Gelatchers) : as Fangs and 
Fingers from Fenjan, and Hand from )^encan. Though 
Junius would persuade us that they are — " Haraatse atque 
aduncse ferarum volucrumque prsedatricum ungulse : a B. 
Klutsen, quatere, concutere : item Kletsen, gravi ac resono ictu 
percutere.'^ 

["But all in vaine : his woman was too wise 
Ever to come into his clouch againe." 

Faerie Queene, book 3. cant. 10. st. 20- 
*' And in his hand an huge long stafFe he held, 
Whose top was arm'd with many an yron hooke, 
Fit to catch hold of all that he could weld, 
Or in the compasse of his clouches tooke." 

Ibid, book 5. cant. 9. st. 11.] 

Hank ^ One and the same word, only with a diiferent final 
Haunch >► pronunciation, common throughout the language. 
Hinge J cither of k, ch, or ge. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 571 

Minsliew derives haunch from ar^KvKo^, Junius from wyKwv ; 
'^'^quod non modo cubitum, sed quemlibet flexum significat:" 
Skinner from ayK?] : Menage_, tlie Italian Anca, from cuyKwv : 
S. Johnson says — '^ Hinge or Hingle from Hangle or Hang.'' — 
I believe no one ever before saw or heard of Hingle and Hangle. 
All the three words however are merely the past participle of 
the verb J^anjan^, pendere, To Hang. 

To have a hank upon any one, is^ to have a hold upon 
him j or to have something Hankj Hanky d, Hanged or Hung 
upon him. 

The haunch_, the part by which the lower limbs are Hankyd 
or Hanged upon the body or trunk. Hence also the French 
Hanche, and the Italian and Spanish Anca. 

Hinge — That upon which the door is Hung, Heng, Hyng, 
or Hynge ; the verb being thus differently pronounced and 
written. 

"He HANKYD not the picture of his body upon the crosse to teache 
them his deathe." — Declaracion of Christen By loJian Hojpei\ cap. 5. 

"The same body that hankyd upon the crose." — Ihld. cap. 8. 

" And ther withal he hyng adowne hys heed 
And fel on knees." — Troylus, boke 3. fol. 178. p. 1. col. 2. 

" Than Gesmas the thefe whiche henge on the lefte syde of our Lorde 
sayd thus to our Lorde Ihesu. If thou be God, delyuer bothe the and 
us. Than Dysmas that henge on the ryght syde of our Lorde Ihesu 
blamed hym for his wordes." — Nycodemus Gospell, ch. 7. 

*' Absolon henge stylle by his heer." 

Bmes and Pauper, 4th Comm. cap. 2. 

" Example of the theef that hynge on the ryght syde of Cryste." 

Ibid. 5th Comm. cap. 11. 

" Thys mater hynge in argument before the spyrytual iudges by the 
space of XV dayes." Fabian, parte 7. ch. 243. 

[" Then gin the blustring brethren boldly threat 
To move the world from off his stedfast henge.'* 

Faerie Qiieene, book 1. cant. 11, st. 31.] 

Wake "i are one and the same word, differently pronounced 

Watch j and therefore differently written. Though accounted 

substantives in construction, they are merely the past participle 



572 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

of the verb pecan, peccean; vigilare, excitare, suscitare, 
expergisci, solicit are. 

In the old translation of the New Testament attributed to 
Wickliffe, we read, 

" Aboute the fourthe waking of the nigt." 

In the modern translation, 

" About the fourth watch of the night." — Mark^ eh. 6. v. 48. 

"And comaundide the porter that he wake. Therefore wake ye, 
forsothe ye witen not whanne the lorde of the hous shall come." 

" And commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore, for ye 
know not when the master of the house cometh." — Ibid. ch. 13. v. 34, 35. 

"And he cam din.difonde hem slepinge, and he seide to Petir, Symount, 
slepist thou, migtest thou not wake oon hour with me ? Wake ye, and 
preie ye, that ye entre not in to temptacion." 

" And he cometh and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, 
Simon, sleepest thou? Couldest not thou watch one hour? Watch ye 
and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." — Ibid. ch. 14. v. 37, 38. 

" And if he shal come in the secounde waking, and if he shal come 
in the thridde waking, and shal fynde so, the seruauntis ben blessid. 
Porsothe wite ye this thing, for yf an husbande man wiste in what hour 
the theef shulde come, sotheli he shulde wake and not suffre his hous to 
be mynyd." 

" And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third 
watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, 
that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would 
come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be 
broken through." — Luke, ch. 12. v. 38, 39. 

" The constable of the castell that kepith al the wache." 

Vision of P. Tloughnan, pass. 10. fol. 42. p. 1. 

" Ne how that Arcite is brent to ashen colde, 

Ne how the lyche wake was holde 

All that nyght, ne how the Grekes play 

The WAKE playes, kepe I nat to say." 

Knyghtes Tale, fol. 11. p. 1. 
" Al be it so, that no tonge may it deuise, 

Though that I might a thousande winter tell 

The paynes of that cursed house of hell ; 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 573 

But for to kepe us from that cursed place, 

Wake, and prayeth lesu of his grace." — Freres Tale^ fol. 42. p. 1. 

" They nolde drinke in no maner wyse 
No drinke, that dronJce might hem make ; 
But there in abstynence pray and wake, 
Lest that they deyden." Sompners Tale, fol. 43. 

" Saynt Poule byddeth us wake in all manner besynesse of gode 
werkes." — Diues and Paupei', 10th Comm. cap. 6. 

Awake is the same past participle of pecan, preceded by a ; 
the usual Anglo-Saxon prefix to the past tense. 

Hence too^ I believe, the old Italian words Avaccio and 
Avacciare ; which have so exceedingly distressed their etymolo- 
gists. The Italians not having a w, and pronouncing c as we 
pronounce ch, have made Avaccio from Tfpsec, or Awatch ; 
which appears to me to be its meaning in all the passages 
where Avaccio is employed.^ 

F. — Though it is not much to our present purpose, I cannot 
but notice a word in our own language, as little understood by 
us. I mean the common nautical term avast ; which seems to 
supply the place of our antient Yare, Yare. Skinner says, it 
means — " Ocyus facesse, hinc te proripe, abi quam primum ; 
vox nautis usitatissima : fort, a prsep. Lat. ^^ et Belg. Haesten, 
festinare ; q. d. Hinc festines.'' This is given by Skinner only 
as a conjecture; but it is not a happy one : for this Latin and 
Dutch mixture makes but an ill-assorted English compound. 
Apothecaries often complain of the physician^ s want of skill in 
pharmacy. S. Johnson, without even a glimpse of the meaning 
of the word, says — " Avast, adv. [from Basla, ItaL It is enough] 
Enough. Cease.'' 

H. — Skinner and Johnson differing thus widely in the im- 
port of the word, as well as in its derivation, I may be per- 
mitted to differ from both, and to offer my conjecture. Avast, 
when used by seamen, always precedes some orders or some 
conversation. It cannot therefore mean Ahi quam primum. 
Hinc te proripe : neither can it mean Cease. Enough. Avast 



^ [Qu. Bivouac, Be-wachten? — En.] 



574 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

answers tlie same purpose as — Hearkye, List, Attend, Take heed, 
Gala^ Hola, or (as tlie French used to begin the exercise of their 
soldiers) Alerte. Like the Italian Avacci, I think it means — 
Be attentive, Be on the Watch, i. e. awake. I do not undertake 
to shew the gradations of the corruption. 



Pack 

Patch 

Page 

Pageant 

Pish 

Pshaw 



Of these words S. Johnson says^ 
" Pack — pack, Dutch." 
" Patch — pezzo, Italian.'^ 

^' Page — page, French." 

This Dutch^ this Italian_, and this French derivation (which 
explain nothing; and in point of signification leave us just 
where we were without them) he takes from Skinner. He then 
proceeds upon his own bottom. 

" Pageant. Of this word the etymologists give us no satis- 
factory account. It may perhaps be Payen Geant, a Pagan 
Giant; a representation of triumph used at return from holy 
wars; — as we have yet the Saracen's head." 

Undoubtedly we have in London the sign of the Saracen's 
head. Undoubtedly Payen is French,, and Geant is French : but 
these words — Un Payen Geant — were never yet seen so coupled 
in French. He proceeds, 

"Patchery, Botchery, Bungling work. Forgery. A word 
not in use." 

^' Pageantry, Pomp, Show." 

" Pish, interj. A contemptuous exclamation. This is some- 
times spoken and written Pshaw. I know not their etymology, 
and imagine them formed by ChanceJ' 

His Chance is not half so disgusting as his Payen Geant : and 
it would have been better for his readers ; would have saved him 
a little trouble ; and been no disgrace to his philosophy ; if he 
had at once assigned Chance as the common cause of all the 
words in the language. 

The word patch however having been formerly applied to 
men, and patchery to their conduct; and these applications 
of those words being no longer in common use ; the common- 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 575 

tators of Shakespeare (in whose writings they are frequent) were 
compelled to inquire into the meaning of the words patch and 

PATCHERY. 

" What a py'de ninnie 's this ! Thou scuruy patch." 

Tempest, p. 12. col. 1. 

Mr. Steevens says — "It should be remembered that Trin- 
culo is no sailor, but a Jester, and is so called in the antient 
Dramatis Personse. He therefore wears the parti -coloured 
dress of one of these characters." 

Mr. Malone says — " Dr. Johnson observes that Caliban could 
have no knowledge of the striped coat usually worn by fools ; 
and would therefore transfer this speech to Stephano. But 
though Caliban might not know this circumstance, Shakespeare 
did. Surely he who has given to all countries and all ages the 
manners of his own, might forget himself here, as well as in 
other places." 

*' S. Dro. Mome, malthorse, capon, coxcombe, idiot, patch." 
*'^. Dro. What patch is made our porter ? " 

Comedy of I^rors, p. 90. col. 1. 

Mr. Steevens says — " Patch, i. e. A fool. Alluding to the 
parti-coloured coats worn by the licensed fools or jesters of the 
age." 

"A crew of patches, rude mechanicals, 
Tliat worke for bread upon Athenian stals." 

Midsummer Nights Breame, p. 151. col. 1. 

What were the commentators to do here ? These were not 
licensed Jesters, in parti- coloured coats ; a crew of Jesters : but 
rude mechanicals, working for bread upon their stalls. 

Johnson says — '' Patch was in old language used as a term 
of opprobry; perhaps with much the same import as we use 
ragamuffin, or tatterdemalion^^ ^ 

T. Warton — " This common opprobrious term probably 



These explanatory words are themselves thus explained by Johnson 
Eagamuffin — from Hag, and I know not what else." 
'Tatterdemalion — Tatter, and I know not what." 



576 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

took its rise from patch, Cardinal Wolsey's fool. In the 
Western Counties, Cross-patch is still used for perverse, ill- 
natured fool.'' 

Steevens — " The name was rather taken from the patched 
ov pyed coats worn hy the fools or jesters of those times.^^ 

Tyrwhitt — " I should suppose patch to be merely a corrup- 
tion of the Italian Pazzo, which signifies properly a Fool. So, 
in the Merchant of Venice, Shy lock says of Launcelot — ^The 
PATCH is kind enough ' — after having just called him — ^ That 
fool of Hagar^s offspring.^ " 

Malone — '' This term should seem to have come into use 
from the name of a celebrated fool. This I learn from Wilson^s 
Art of Rhetorique — ^A word-making, called of the Grecians 
onomatopeia, is when we make words of our own mind, such as 
be derived from the nature of things ; as to call one patche ^ or 
cowLsoN, whom we see to do a thing foolishly : because these 
two in their time were notable fools.' — Probably the dress 
which the celebrated patche wore, was, in allusion to his name, 
patched or parti- coloured. Hence the stage fool has ever since 
been exhibited in a motley coat. Patche, of whom Wilson 
speaks, was Cardinal Wolsey's fool.^' 

" Serv. There is ten thousand — 
Macb. Geese? villaine. 
Serv. Souldiers, sh." 

"Macb. What souldiers ? patch." 

"What souldiers? Whey-face."— Jlf^c^e^, p. 42. 

Steevens again says — '^ An appellation of contempt, alluding 
to the pyM, patchM or parti- coloured coats antiently worn by 
the fools belonging to noble families.'^ 

Johnson, Steevens, Warton, and Malone assume, for the 
purpose of their explanation, that Patched means the same as 
pyed or parti-coloured. But this assumption every huswife can 
contradict. 

^ [In two books in the Kemembrancer's office in the Exchequer, con- 
taining an account of the daily expenses of King Henry the 7th, are the 
following articles. Sec. 

" Item, to Tachje the Fole for a rew . . . . 0.6. 8." 
See Malone' 8 Edition of Shakespeare ^ vol. 1. part 2. p. 53.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 577 

In the following passages of Shakespeare can they find any 
pying or particolouring ? 

" Aud oftentimes, excusing of a fault 
Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse : 
As PATCHES, set upon a little breach, 
Discredite more in hiding of the fault, 
Than did the fault before it was so patched'' 

King John, p. 14. col. 2. 

They who put patches on a little breach, to hide it, are careful 
that the colour shall as nearly as possible resemble that upon 
which they put it. 

" Other diuels that suggest by treasons, 
Do botch and bungle up damnation, 
With PATCHES, colours, and with formes being fetch't 
From glistering seiJiblances of piety." — Henry V. p. 75. col. 1. 
" Here is such Fatcher'ie, such jugling and such knauerie : all the argu- 
ment is a cuckold and a whore." — Troylus and Cressida, p. 87. 
" Tim. There 's neuer a one of you but trusts a knaue, 
That mightily deceiues you. 
Poet ^ Painter. Do we, my lord ? 
Tim. I, and j-ou heare him cogge, see him dissemble^ 

Know his grosse patchery, loue him, feede him, 

Keepe in your bosome, yet remaine assur'd 

That he 's a made-up villaine." — Timon of Athens,^. 96. col. 1. 

But beside the words patch and patchery, Shakespeare 
applies the word pack ^ in a manner now almost obsolete. 



^ [" Sought to nousel the common people in ignorance, least, being 
once acquainted with the truth of things, they would in time smell out 
the untruth of their packed pelfe and Masse-peny religion." 

E. K.'s Glosse on Shejoheards Calender : June. 
" These were the arts, with which she could surprize 
A thousand thousand soules by theeuish trade, 
Bather the armes with which, in robbing wise. 
To force of loue them humble slaues she made ; 
What maruaile then if fierce Achilles lyes, 
Or Hercules or Theseus, to blade 

Of Loue a pray ; if who for Christ it draw, 

The 7iauyhtie-VA.CKE sometimes do catch in paw." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, Translated hy R. C. Esq. 
cant. 4. St. 92. 
2 p 



578 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" What hath bin scene 



Either in snuffes, and packings of the dukes, 

Or the hard reine which both of them hath borne 

Against the old kinde king." Leai\ p. 296. col. 1. 

Upon this passage Mr. Steevens says — ^^ Packings are under- 
hand contrivances. So^ in Stanyhursfs Virgil, 1582. — 'With 
two gods PACKING, one woman silly to cozen.^ — We still talk of 
PACKING juries.^^ 

" She, Eros, has 

Packt cards with Caesars, and false plaid my glory 

Unto an enemies triumph." — Antoviy and Cleopatra, p. 362. col. 1. 

To these instances from Shakespeare we may add some 
others, written before Shakespeare's time ; one in the reign of 
Henry the seventh, before Wolsey was a Cardinal, or had a 
fool. 

" King Eycharde did preferre such byshops to bishoprykes, as could 
neyther teache nor preache, nor knewe any thinge of the Scripture of 
God, but onely to call for theyr tythes and duties, and to helpe to serue 
his lustes and pleasures ; whiche in dede were not worthye the name of 
byshops, but rather of noughtye packes disguised in byshoppes apparell." 
--Fabian, vol. 2. p. 343. 

" Some haue a name for thefte and bribery. 
Some be call'd crafty, that can pyke a purse, 
Some men be made of for their mockery, 

" Queste fur 1' arti, onde mill' alme, e mille 
Prender furtivamente ella poteo ; 
Anzi pur furon 1' arme, onde rapille, 
Et a forza d' Amor serve le feo. 
Qual meraviglia hor fia, se '1 fero Achille 
D' Amor fu preda, et Hercole, e Theseo, 
S' ancor chi per Giesu la spada cinge 
L' EMPio ne' lacci suoi tal' hora stringe? " — T«55o, cant. 4. st. 92. 

" his lord of old 

Did hate all errant knights which there did haunt, 
Ne lodging would to any of them graunt : 
And therefore lightly bad him packe away, 
Not sparing him with bitter words to taunt." 

Faerie Queene, book 6. cant. 6. st. 21. 
" Enire Cytheree, the mother of delight, 
And queene of beautie, now thou maist go pack ; 
For lo ! thy kingdome is defaced quight." 

Spenser, Teares of the Muses.'] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTIO^f. 579 

Som careful cokolds, som haue their wiues curse, 
Som famous witwoldes, and they moche wurse, 
Som lidderous, som losels, som naughty packes, 
Som facers, som bracers, som make gret cracks." 

Shelton, p. 15. edit. 1736. 
" I tell you nothing nowe of many a noughtye packe, many a flecke 
and his make, that maketh their ymages metinges at these holsum hal- 
lowes." — Sir T. Mores Workes, A Dialogue^ 8fc. p. 140. 

Now, if yoTi have well considered the use and signification 
of the words pack, patch and patchery in the above differ- 
ent passages ; I think I shall not surprize you, when I affirm 
that PACK, PATCH (in both its applications, viz. to men or to 
clothes) and page, are the same past participle Pac (differ- 
ently pronounced and therefore differently written, with k, 
CH, or ge) of the Anglo-Saxon verb Psecan, Pseccean,^ To 



^ [" Ne let the ponke, nor other evill sprights, 
Ne let mischievous witches with theyr charmes, 
Ne let hobgoblins, names whose sense we see not, 
FfiAY us with things that be not." — Spenser : Epithalamion. 

Todd supposes pouke to be the true reading, i. e. puck, or Robin 
Goodfellow. I suppose the same ; and that it belongs to this word 
Psecan or Paeccean. His tricks account for his name. 

" Puck. Either I mistake your shape and making quite, 
Or else you are that shrew'd and knavish sprite 
Cal'd Eobin Good-fellow. Are you not hee, 
That frights the maidens of the villag'ree. 
Skim milke, and sometimes labour in the querne, 
And bootlesse make the breathlesse huswife cherne, 
And sometime make the drinke to beare no barme, 
Misleade night-wanderers, laughing at their harme, 
Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet pucke, 
You do their worke, and they shall haue good lucke. 
Are you not he ? 

Rob. Thou speak'st aright ; 

I am that merrie wanderer of the night : 
I iest to Oberon, and make him smile. 
When I a fat and beane-fed horse beguile, 
Neighing in likenesse of a silly foale ; 
And sometime lurke I in a gossips bole, 
In very likenesse of a roasted crab : 
And when she drinkes, against her lips I bob, 
And on her withered dewlop pourc the ale. 
The wisest aunt telling the saddest talc, 

2 p 2 



580 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

deceive by false appearances, imitation, resemblance, semblance, 
or representation; To Counterfeit, To Delude, To Illude, To 
Dissemble, To impose upon. And that pageant is (by a 
small variation of pronunciation) merely the present participle 
Psecceanb, of the same verb. — Pacheand, Pacheant, Pageant. 

" I will put on his presence ; let Patroclus make his demands to me : 
You shall see the pageant of Ajax." — Troylus and Cressida. 

" With him Patroclus 

Upon a lazie bed, the liue-long day 

Breakes scurril jests. 

And with ridiculous and aukward action, 

Which, slanderer, he imitation calls, 

He PAGEANTS US." ' Ibid. 

[" In Satyres shape Antiopa he snatcht : 
And like a fire, when he ^Egin' assayd : 
A shepeheard, when Mnemosyne he catcht : 
And like a serpent, to the Thracian mayd. 
Whyles thus on earth great love these pageaunts playd, 
The winged boy did thrust into his throne." 

Faerie Queene, book 3. cant. 11. st. 35. 

" Before mine eies strange sights presented were, 

Like tragicke pageants seeming to appeare." 

Spenser'* s Ruines of Time. 
" Of this worlds theatre in which we stay, 

My Love, like the spectator, ydly sits ; 

Beholding me, that all the pageants play, 

Disguysing diversly my troubled wits. 

Sometimes I ioy when glad occasion fits, 

And mask in myrtli lyke to a comedy : 

Soone after, when my ioy to sorrow flits, 

I waile, and make my woes a tragedy." — Spenser : sonnet 54.] 

The ejaculations pish and pshaw are the Anglo-Saxon 
Psec, Pseca; pronounced pesh, pesha (a broad). And 



Sometime for three-foot stoole mistaketh me. 
Then slip I from her bum, downe topples she, 
And Tailour cries, and fals into a cotte. 
And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe, 
And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and sweare, 
A merrier houre was neuer wasted there." 

A Midsommer Nights Lreame, p. 148. col. 1, 2. act 2.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION, 581 

are equivalent to the ejaculation — Trumpery ! i. e. Tromperie 
from Tromper. 

As servants were contemptuously called Harlot, Varlet, Valet 
and Knave, so were they called Pack, Patch and Page. And 
from the same source is the French page and the Italian 

PAGGIO. 

But if you shall be pleased rather to suppose that the English 
word PAGE comes from the French^ and the French from the 
Italian, because that is the order in which you learned those 
languages : What will you gain by such a supposition ? You 
must still go on_, and inquire the meaning of paggio. And all 
the satisfaction you will obtain, will be ; that some will tell 
you, it comes either /rom the Latin Pdedagium, or from Faheus, 
or from the Greek irai^, or from the Turkish Peik, or from the 
Persian Bagoas. But still you will have made no progress : for 
the meaning of any one of these words (distinct from its appli- 
cation) they will not attempt to tell you. 

F. — If the office of page was an inferior station, your ety- 
mology would have more probability; but you know there is 
much dispute upon that subject ; and that many contend, it 
was a post of honour and distinction, unlikely to receive so 
degrading an appellation. 

H. — A page of honour, comparatively with other pages, was 
no doubt in a post of honour. But of the grandeur of the 
station you may judge by what follows. 

" Sir knight, I pray tliee to tell me what thou art, and of thy being. 
I am no knight, said Sir Gawaine, I haue been brought up many yeares 
in the gard-robe, with the noble prince king Arthur for to . take heede 
to his armour and his other aray, and for to point his paultockes that 
belongeth to him selfe. At Christmas last hee made me Yeoman, and 
gaue me horse and harneis and an hundred pound in money, and if 
fortune be my friend, I doubt not but to be well aduanced and holpen 
by my liege lord. Ah, said Priamus, if his Knaves be so keene and 
fierce, then liis knights be passing good. Now for the kinges loue of 
heauen, whether you be knight or knaue, tell me thy name. By god, 
said Sir Gawaine, now will I tel the truth ; my name is Sir Gawaine, 
and knowen I am in his noble court and in his chamber, and on of the 
knights of the round table : he dubbed me a duke with his own hande, 
therefore grudge not if his grace is to me fortune and common, it is the 
goodnesse of God that lent to me my strength. Now am I better 



582 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

pleased, said Priamus, then if thou hadst giuen me all the prouince of 
Paris the rich, I had rather to be torne with wild horses then any Varlet 
should haue wonne such lots, or any page or Pricker should haue had 
the price of me." — Hist, of J^rince Arthur^ ch. 97. 

*' Oui' lyege lorde the kyng hath power and fredom, of a page for to 
make a Yoman^oti a Yoman a Gentylman^ of a Gentylman a Knight, of a 
poore man a grete Lord, without leue or helpe of the planetes." — Biues 
and Pauper, 1st Comm. cap. 17. 

Wrest -j The past participle of the verb ppseftan, torquere. 
Wrist j intorquere^ To Wrest, 

*' It causeth hertes no lenger to debate 
That parted ben with the wreste of hate." 

Inffe of OUT Lady, p. 176. 

Wrist, which is the same participle, was formerly called 
t)anbpyppfc, i. e. Handwrist, or Handtvrest. 

[" Their shining shieldes about their wrestes they tye." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 5. st. 6. 
" His sunbroad shield about his wrest he hond^ 

Ibid, book 2. cant. 1. st. 21. 
" His puissant armes about his noble brest. 
And many-folded shield he bound about his wrest." 

Ibid. cant. 3. st. 1. 
" And Guyons shield about his wrest he bond." 

Ibid. cant. 8. st. 22.] 

Grist — (De-pipeb) the past participle of Ere-pipan, Tie- 
hpypan, contundere, conterere, collidere. To Crush, To Crush 
comes from the same verb. As does also the French 
Escraser, Ecraser. JiKISQAN, PA-hjaSQAN, flS-PA- 

hKiSQAN. 

^ [ The past participle of Fpemaii, facere. 

The Latin Forma, by a common transposition, is likewise 
from the same verb : But if this derivation should not please 
you, see whether you will be better off with the Latin etymo- 
logists. 

" Forma ab antiquo Formus, id est, calidus ; quia ex calore 
nativo provenit. NonnuUis placet, ut kcCKov juxta Platonem 
venit airo tov KaXcLv, id est, vocare ; quia pulcra hominem ad 



1 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 583 

se alliciunt: ita Formam esse ab opfir) ; quia impetu quodam 
homines ad Forma amorem impellantur. Saue spiritus asper 
crebro abit in f. Atque idem locum habeat_, si Forma dedu- 
catur ab opafjua, quod ab opaco^ video. Et sane hoc prioribus 
impensius placuit. Quare vel istud verum erit: vel Kara 
fieraOeaLv fuerit Forma ex Dorico fiopcjia pro /jLopcjyr}, quod idem 
ac Forma. Indeque Ovidio Morpheus dictus somni vel filius 
vel minister; quod varias Formas in dormientium ^avTaaia 
gignat." — Vossius. 

Flaw — The past participle of Flean, excoriare^ To Flay. 

Gleam 7 The past participle of A.-S. Leoman, Lioman, De- 
Glogm jleoman, De-lioman_, radiare, coruscare, lucere. 

*' This light and this leem shal Lucifer ablend." 

Vision of P. Ploughman , pass. 19. fol. 99. p. 1. 

[" Of this faire fire the faire dispersed rays 
Threw forth abrode a thousand shining leames. 
When sodain dropping of a golden shoure 
Gan quench the glystering flarae." — Visions of Petrarch, st. 9.] 

" Cynthia, if thou shouldest continue at thy fulnesse Sec. but thou, 
thinking it sufficient if once in a moneth we enjoy a glimpse of thy 
majestic, thou doest decrease thy glemes." 

Undimion, By John Lilly, act 1. sc. 1. 

[" Scarsely had Phoebus in the glooming east 
Yett harnessed his fyrie-footed teeme." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 12. st. 2. 

" There by th' uncertaine glims of starry night, 
And by the twinkling of their sacred fire. 
He mote perceive a litle dawning sight 
Of all which there was doing in that quire." 

Ibid, book 6. cant. 8. st. 48.] 

" I have methinks a kind of fever upon me : a certain gloominess 
within me, doubting, as it were, betwixt two passions." 

B. and Fletcher : The Woman Hater, 

" The field, all iron, cast a gleaming brown." 

Faradise Regained, book 3. v. 326. 

The Latin Lumen is the past participle of Lioman. 



584 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Long — The past participle of Lenjian^, extendere_, produ- 
cere. Nor can any other derivation be found for the Latin 
Longus} 

Sleeve — A.-S. j-lyj:. Formerly called Gapm-flipe : that with 
which the arm is covered : The past participle of 81ej:an, 
induere. 

Sleeveless means without a cover^ or pretence. 

Bed — i. e. Stratum. The past participle of Bebbian^ sternere. 
Therefore we speak of a Garden- 5ec? and a Bed of Gravel,, &c. 
And in the Anglo-Saxon Bebb is sometimes used for a table. 

Path — The past tense and participle of Pe^^ian, conculcare, 
pedibus obterere.^ 



^ G. I. Yossius tells us — " Longus a Linea quae porrecta est : Ita 
Isidorus. Vel potius a longa figura venabuli aut lancese, quam Grseci 
\oyxnv vocant : Ita Caesar Scaliger. Item Petrus Nunnesius." 

But Isaac Vossius tells us — " Est ex Grseco oyKosj XaoyKos, XoyKos : 
nisi forsau ex doXixos, Mo\. XoSixos." 

^ [Trode, Trade, Went. 

" This rede is rife, that oftentime 

Great clymbers fall unsoft. 
In humble dales is footing fast. 

The TRODE is not so tickle. 
And though one fall through heedless hast, 

Yet is' his misse not mickle." — She^pJieards Calender : July, 

" They saye they con to heaven the high- way, 
But by my soule I dare undersaye 
They never sette foote in that same troad. 
But balke the right way, and strayen abroad." — Ibid. September. 

" As shepheardes curre, that in darke eveninges shade 
Hath tracted forth some salvage beastes trade." 

Faerie QtieerWi book 2. cant. 6. st. 39. 

" Till that at length she found the troden gras, 
In which the tract of peoples footing was." 



Ibid, book 1. cant. 3. st, 10. 



'* an island spatious and brode, 



Found it the fittest soyle for their abode, 
Fruitfull of all thinges fitt for living foode. 
But wholy waste and void of peoples trode." 

Ibid, book 3. cant. 9. st. 49. 



CH. IV.J OF ABSTRACTION. 585 

[" That PATH he kept, which beaten was most plaine." 

Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 1. st. 28.] 

Nest — The past participle of Nepan^ visere_, visitare. To 
Fisit frequently, To Haunt. 

[" Sweete Lone denoyd of villanie or ill 
But pure and spotless, as at first he sproug 
Out of th' Almightie's bosom, where he nests." 

Sjjenser : Tears of the Mmes.'] 

[Vide Pye Nest in Yorkshire. See also Dungeness, &c.] 

Grass — That which is grazed or fed upon by cattle : the past 
participle of Dpapian_, To Graze. 

Quag — The past participle of Gpacian^ tremere. 

Mead ") A.-S. GOseb (i. e. GOapeb) Mowed, the past parti- 



) ciple of 



Meadow ) ciple of ClOapan, metere. 



" This Troilus is by a privy went 
Into my chamber come." — Chaucer^ Troilus^ iii. 786. See Junius. 

" Farre under ground from tract of living went, 
Downe in the bottome of the deep abysse 

their dreadfull dwelling is." 

Faerie Queene, book 4. cant. 2. st. 47. 

*' But here my wearie teeme, nigh over-spent, 
Shall breath itselfe a while after so long a went." 

Ibid, book 4. cant. 5. st. 46.] 

[" And, through the long experience of his dayes, 
Which had in many fortunes tossed beene, 
And past through many perillous assayes, 
He knew the diverse went of mortall wayes, 
And in the mindes of men had great insight." 

Ibid, book 6. cant. 6. st. 3. 

" He chaunst to come, far from all peoples tuoad, 
Unto a place, whose pleasaunce did appere 
To passe all others on the earth which were." 

Ibid. cant. 10. st. 5. 

" Said then the Foxc; — Who hath the world not tride. 
From the right way full eath may wander wide. 
Wc are but novices, new come abroad. 
We have not yet the tract of anic troad. 
Nor on us taken anie state of life." 

Spenser : MotJter Hubberds Tale.'] 



586 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

'' Cage. A place shut in and fastened, in which birds are con- 
fined. Also a place in which malefactors are confined. 

Gage. By which a man is bound to certain fulfilments. 

Wages. By which servants are bound to perform certain 
duties. 

Gag. By which the mouth is confined from speaking. 

Keg. In which fish or liquors are shut in and confined. 

Key. By which doors, &c. are confined and fastened. 

Quay. By which the water is confined and shut out [or 

All these I believe to be the past participle of the verb 
Esejjian, obserare. 

From the same Anglo-Saxon verb are the French Cage, Gage, 
Gages y Gageure, Engager, Quai; the Italian Gaggia, Gaggio, 
Gabbia; and the antient Latin Caiare : which have so much 
bewildered the difierent Etymologists. 

Dpaj: and Dpsej: serve equally in the Anglo- 
Saxon for grave or grove. Grave, grove. 



Grove 

p }■ groove are the past tense and therefore past 

participle of Dpapan, fodere, insculpere, exca- 
vare. 



Grot 
Grotto J 



" But alas, the rhetorikes swete 
Of Petrake fraunces tliat coude so endyte, 
And TuUius, with all his wordes whyte 
Full longe agone, and full olde of date 
Is dede a las, and passed into fate, 
And eke my maister Chaucers nowe is graue. 
The noble rethore, poete of Britaine." 

L^dgate's Lyfe of our Lady^ p. 96. 

" Eleyne and eke Policene 
Hester also and Dido with her chere 
And riche Candace of Ethiope quene, 
Lygge they nat graue under colours grene." Ihid. p. 197. 

Graft (sometimes written graff) is the same past tense 
Irpap, with the participial termination ed. Graf-ed, graf'd, 
graft. 

" Litle meruail it is though enuy be an ungracious grafe, for it cometh 
of an ungracious stocke." — ^ir T. More, J)e Quatnor Novissimis, p. 85. 



All these Trords^ now so differently applied_, are merely 
the same past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb 
J^elan, tegere : in Old English To Hele, To Healj or 
To Hil. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTTON. 587 

In GROT, from graft (a broad), the r is suppressed, and 
GROTTO (or rather grotta^) is obliged to the Italians for its 
terminating vowel. 

Hell 

Heel 

Hill 

Hale 

Whole 

Hall 

Hull 

Hole 

Holt 

Hold 

" Nyl ye be bisy, seiynge what shulen we ete, ether what shuleu we 
drjTike, ether with what shulen we be hilid." — Matheu, ch. 6. v. 31. 

" The litil ship was hilid with wawys." — Ibid. ch. 8. v. 24. 

" I was herborles, and ye gederiden me, ether herbourden me, nakid 
and ye hiliden me." — lUd, ch. 25. v. 36. 

" lust men shulen answere, whanne seigen we thee nakid and we 
hiliden thee." — Ibid, chap. 25. v. 38. 

" And thei entringe in to the sepulcre sayen a yong oon hilid with a 
white stoole sittinge on the right half." — MarTc^ ch. 16. v. 5. 

"Torsothe no man ligtinge a lanterne hilith it with a vessel, ether 
puttith under a bedde, but on a candilstik." — lAike^ ch. 8. v. 16. 

"No man Hgtneth a lanterne and puttith in hidlis, nether undir a 
busshel, but on a candilstik." — Ihid. ch. 11. v. 33. 

" Forsothe no thing is hilid whiche shal not be shewid, nether hid 
that shal not be wist." — Ihid. ch. 12. v. 2. 

" Thanne thei shulen bigynne to seie to mounteyns, falle ye doun on 
us ; and to Util hillis, hile ye us." — Ihid. ch. 23. v. 30.' 



^ Menage derives grotta from KpvTn-a. 

^ [Although the instance from Luke, ch. 23. v. 30., adduced by Mr. 
Tooke, may seem to countenance his referring hill, a mount, to the 
verb ))elan, yet, if, instead of an apparent resemblance, tiie cognate dia- 
lects are taken as our guides, we cannot overlook the Dutch Ileuvel, 
Isl. Ilvel, Germ. Hubel, which Wachter derives from heben, levare : 
and more especially the Swedish Hygel and German Biigd (from hohen. 



588 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" Seie thou not in thin herte, who shal stie in to henene, that is to 
seie for to lede doun Crist ? or who shal go doun in to depnesse, or 
HELLE, that is for to agen clepe Crist fro the dede spiritis." 

Romayns, ch. 10. v. 6, 7. 
" Eche man preyinge or propheciynge, the heed hilid, defoulith his 
heed, forsothe eche womman preiynge or propheciynge, the heed not 
HILTD, defoulith her heed." — 1 Corinthies, ch. 11. v. 4, 5. 

" That in the name of Ihesu eche kne be bowid of heuenli thingis and 
erthly and hellis."- — Philippensis, ch. 2. v. 10. 

" And for he was of the same crafte, he dwellide at hem and wrougte, 
forsothe thei weren of tenefectorie craft, that is to make hilyngis to 
traueilynge men." — Dedis, ch. 18. v. 3. 

" And al the houses bene hyled hales and chambres." 

Vision of F. Ploughman, pass. 6. fol. 30. p. 1. 
" And yet me marueiled more howe many other birds 
Hydden and hylden her egges full derne." 

Idid. pass. 12. fol. 58. p. 2. 
" Kind kenned Adam to knowe his priuy membres, 
And taught him and Eue to hyll hem with leaues." 

Ibid. pass. 13. fol. 63. p. 1. 
" Lewed men many times masters they apposen 
Why Adam ne hilled not first his mouth that eat the apple 
Eather than his licham alowe." Ibid. fol. 63. p. 2. 

" What hightest thou, I pray the, he ale not thy name." 

Ibid, pass 21. fol. 116. p. 2. 
" As she that was not worthie here 
To ben of loue a chambrere. 
For she no counsaile couth hele." 

Gower, lib. 3. fol. 52. p. 1. col. 1. 
" For 1 haue in you suche a triste 
As ye that be my soule hele, 
That ye fro me no thynge woll hele." 

Ibid. lib. 4. fol. 62. p. 2. col. 2. 

extollere), of which Kilian and Schilter consider hill to be a contraction. 
Elevation is more the essential character of hill than covering. Eichard- 
son gives Germ. Hiiegel as the root, and then, confounding incompatible 
etymologies, refers that to A.-S. jpelan, To cover. As to the passage he 
gives from E. Brunne, p. 224, 

" He sped him thider in haste, with Jdlled hors of pris," 
and which he interprets "high horse;" it no doubt means "horse 
covered with trappings." So in the following page, " with hors and 
hcrneys."— Ed.] 



CH. IV.] OP ABSTRACTION. 589 

" She toke up turiies of the loiide 

Without helpe of mans honde 

And HELED with the grene grass." 

Gower, lib. 5. fol. 105. p. 2. col. 1. 
" Murdre is waltsome and abhominable 

To God, that so juste is and reasonable 

That he ne wol it suffre healed to be, 

Though it abyde a yere, two or thre, 

Murdre wol out." Tale of the Nonnes Trieste fol. 89. p. 1. col. 2. 

" And some men sain, that great delyte haue we 
For to ben holde stable and eke secre 
And in o purpose stedfastly to dwell 
And nat bewray thing that men us tell. 
But that tale is not worth a rake stele, 
Parde we women can no thyng hele, 
Witnesse of Midas, wol ye here the tale." 

Wife of Bailee Tale, fol. 38. p. 2. col. 1. 
** For which I wol not hyde in holde 
No priuete that me is tolde. 
That I by worde or sygne ywis 
Ne wol make hem knowe what it is, 
And they woUen also tellen me, 
They hele fro me no priuyte." 

Bx)m. of the Rose, fol. 104. p. 1. col. 1. 
" His brade schulderis wele cled and ouer heild 
With ane young buUis hyde newly of hynt." 

Douglas, booke 11. p. 388. 
" Eneas houit stil the schot to byde. 
Him schroudand under hys armour and his scheild, 
Bowand his hock, and stude a lytic on heild." 

lUd. booke 12. p. 427. 
"And fyrie Phlegon his dym nychtis stede 
Doukit sa depe his hede in fludis gray, 
That Phebus rollis doun under hel away : 
And Plesperus in the West with hemes brycht 
U|)springis, as fore rydare of the nycht." 

Ibid. Prol. to booke 13. p. 449. 
" Laye it in a troughe of stone, and hyll it wyth lede close and juste, 
and after do bynde it wyth barres of iron in moste strongest and sure 
wise." — Fabian, parte 6. ch. 213. 

Ray says — " To heal, To cover. Sussex. As — To heal 
the fire. — To heal a house. — To heal a person in bed, i. e. 



590 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

To cover them, ab A.-S. )>elaii, To hide. To cover. Hence, 
in the West, he that covers a house with slates is called a 
HEALER or HELLiER.'^ — Ray, South and East Country Wo7^ds, 
p. 78. 

Hell — any place, or some place covered over.^ 
Heel — that part of the foot which is covered by the leg.' 
Hill — any heap of earth, or stone, &c. by which the plain or 
level surface of the earth is covered? 

Hale — i. e. healed, or whole. 

[" There he remaind with them right well agreed, 
TiU of his wounds he wexed hole and strong." 

Faerie Queene, book 6. cant. 1. st. 47.] 

Whole — the same as hale, i. e. covered. — It was formerly 

^ written hole, without the w. — As, a wound or sore is healed 

or whole, that is, covered over by the skin. Which manner 

of expression will not seem extraordinary, if we consider our use 

of the word Re-cover. 

Hall — a covered building, where persons assemble,, or where 
goods are protected from the weather.* 

Les HALLEs in French has the same signification. 

'^ Ce sont des places et lieux publics couverts pour y 
vendre les denrees a Tabri.'^ — " In quibus tempore pluviali 
omnes mercatores merces suas mundissime venderent." — " Le 
lieu auquel pour Texercice du commerce on s' assemble de toutes 
parts, mesme es jours ordinaires de marche, et aussi pour conferer 
et communiquer.'^ — " Domus qusevis in qua merces plurimorum 
conservantur.^^ 

The French etymologists were all clear enough in the ap- 



^ Minshevv derives hell from *eXos, laciis — palus. 

^ Minshew derives heel from KrjXt}, tumor. Skinner from " J/Xoy, 
clavus, et secundario, callosum ilkid tuberculum quod raedic^ clamim 
dicunt J nos Angli, a Com : fort, quia os hoc instar capitis clavi ferrei, 
vel potius clavi morbi, protuberat." 

^ Hill, Junius says — " videri potest abscissum ex KoXavrj vel koXco- 
vos. Plures derivarunt ab Hiffk, altus." 

* Hall, say the etymologists, from the Latin Aula and the Greek 
uv\r]. Junius thinks from " a\a)s, atrium ; vel ab avKciP, quod significat 
oblongum locum." 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 591 

plication of the word ; but trifled egregiously when they sought 
its derivation from the Latin Aula, or Area, or Hallus, " qui 
(say they) dans les loix barbares signifie Rameau,'^ Or from 
the Greek oXia, aKidai, oKwv, akw<^. 

Hull — of a nut^ &c. That by which the nut is covered. 

Hull — of a ship. That part which is covered in the water. 

Hole — some place covered over.^ 

" You shall seek for holes to hide your heads in.*' 

Holt — Holed, HoVd, Holt. A rising ground or knoll covered 

with trees. 

Hold — As the Hold of a ship : in which things are covered ; 

or the covered part of a ship.^ 

F. — I cannot perceive that hole always means covered; 

though it may in the instance you have chosen to produce. 

Cannot I drill a hole in the centre of this shilling ? And then 

where wiU be the covering ? 

H. — After you have so drilled it, break it diametrically : and 

then where will be the hole ? Of the two pieces each will have 

a notch in it ; but no hole will remain. 

A shade -\ which our etymologists unnecessarily derive from 
A shadow /the Greek crKia, mean (something, any thing) 
A sHAW \^ secluded, separated, retired; or (something) by 
A SHED J which we are separated from the weather, the 

sun, &c. They are the past tense and therefore past participle 

of 8ceaban, separare, segregare, dividere. 

" Hantit to ryn in woddis and in schawis." 

Bouglas, booke 5. p. 137. 
" Quher that the happy spayman on his gyse 

Pronuncit the festuale haly sacrifice, 

And the fat offerandis did you call on raw 

To banket amyd the derne blissit schaw." — Ibid, booke 11. p. 391. 



^ ^linshew derives hole from koCKos, cavus. " Alludit etiam (says 
Skinner) avKa^, sulcus : avKoiv, fossa seu convallis oblonga ; yeoXea, lati- 
bula ferarum : acwXoj/, koKov, inter alia, alvus ; et ^wXeoy, antmm." 

^ Skinner has well described holt and hold, though he missed their 
derivation. Hold of a ship, he says — " sic dicitur contabulatio navis 
infima, ubi penus navis cotiditu?'.'' And holt — " Nemus seu arborum 
quarumvis densina consitarum multitudiuem dcsignat." 



592 OY ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Lewd ") Lewd_, in Anglo-Saxon Lsepeb, is almost equivalent 

Lay 5 to wicked ; except that it includes no agency of 
infernal spirits : it means misled, led astray, deluded, imposed 
upon, betrayed into error. Lew^d is the past participle, and 
LAY is the past tense and therefore past participle of the 
Anglo-Saxon verb Laepan, prodere, tradere. To Delude, To 
Mislead. 

Lewd, in its modern application, is confined to those who 
are betrayed or misled by one particular passion : it was an- 
tiently applied to the profanum vulgus at large ; too often misled 
through ignorance. 

F. — Our word many seems to me a strange word, and its 
use in our language still stranger. There is nothing like it, I 
believe, in the use of the equivalent words of any other lan- 
guages. What is its intrinsic meaning? Is it a substantive 
or an adjective ? What is the rule of its employment ? Dr. 
Lowth is extremely puzzled with it : amongst other perplexing 
passaged he cites the following ; 

" How MANY a inessage would he send." 

Swift, Verses on his oion Death. 

On which, Lowth says — " He would send many a message 
— is right : but the question How, seems to destroy the unity 
or collective nature of the idea : and therefore it ought to have 
been expressed, if the measure would have allowed of it, 
without the Article, in the plural number, — ' how many mes- 
sages.' '^ 

H. — The bishop mistakes in one point. " Many a message " 
— ^is not right : except by a corrupt custom. There is a cor- 
ruption here in this familiar expression; which, not being 
observed by Lowth, made him suppose this a to be an Article ; 
and therefore made him attempt to arrange the use of it, 
as an Article, on such occasions; and to reduce it to some 
regularity. 

*' a made a finer end, and went away, and it had beene any christome 
child : a parted eu'n just betweene twelue and drie. How now Sir 
lohn (quoth I ^) what man ? Be a good cheare : so a cryed out, God, 



^ Because the third person singular of our English verbs is usually 
designated by eth or tit; many ignorant persons, affecting to shew a 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 593 

God, God, three or foure times : now I, to comfort him, bid him a 
should not thinke of God : I hop'd there was no neede to trouble him- 
selfe with any such thoughts yet : so a bad me lay more clothes on his 
feet." — Henry V. p. 75. 

So_, in page 78 of the same play, Gower says to Fluellen — > 
" Here a comes.^^ 

Sir T. More, as we have seen, writes — "Burne np, quoth «." 

So we say — John a Nokes/ Tom a Stiles, Thomas a Becket, 
&c. 

In all the above passages and in similar phrases, which are 
common enough, a by a slovenly pronunciation, stands some- 
times for He, sometimes for She, and sometimes for Of. The 
use of A after the word many is a similar corruption for Of; and 
has no connection whatever with the Article a, i. e. One. 

Instead of this corrupt a after many, was formerly written Of, 
without the corruption : 

" Ye spend a great meany of wordes in vayne." — Bislwp Gardiner, 
Declaracion against loye, fol. 14. 

" I haue spoken a meany of wordes." — Ibid. fol. 24. 

and innumerable other instances may be prodaced of the same 
manner of expression. As for the '^ collective nature of the 
idea ; ^^ that is confined to the vrord many. Many is indeed 
a collective term, and may therefore be preceded by the article 
a; but Message is not a collective term. Therefore — Many 
a message, is not right; except by a corrupt custom. It should 
be — " a many of messages." 

Many, is supposed by Lye to be derived from man ; — " ac 
proprie de hominum multitudine usurpatum : " and thence, 
according to him, transferred to other things. But many is 



superior propriety of speech, are shocked at the expression — Quoth I 
— as a false concord ; and affectedly depart from the customary plirase, 
and write Quod I. But Quoth J, is strictly accurate for said I. The 
th in Quoth, does not designate the third person, lire verb is Epe^an, 
and its past tense is Epo^ or Quoth. 

^ [In the case of proper names, it is probably tlie representative of 
at, in like manner as, " Sym at Style, Hankyn Attl\m(\^e, John Atte- 
water," — Mr. Stevenson's note in Boucher's Glossary, v. at, atten, 
ATTE. — Ed.] 



594 OP ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

merely the past participle of GOenjan/ miscere, To Mix, To 
Mingle : it means mixed, or associated (for that is the effect 
of mixing) subaud. company, or any uncertain and unspecified 
number of any things. 

" And in her house she abode with such meyne 

As tyl her honour nede was to holde." 

Troyhis, boke 1. fol. 157. p. 2. col. 2. 
" Nor be na wais me lyst nat to deny 

That of the Grekis menye ane am I." Douglas, booke 2. p. 41. 

[" The commoditie doth not countervaile the discommoditie ; for the 
inconveniencies which thereby doe arise, are much moee many." — 
Spenser's View of the State of Ireland, Todd's edit. 1805, p. 367-] 

Similar instances of the use of this word abound in all our 
antient authors. 

Lowth observes that many is used " chiefly with the word 
Great before it.^^ I believe he was little aware of the occa- 
sion for the frequent precedence of Great before Many : little 
imagining that there might be — a Feiv many, as well as a 
Great many. S. Johnson had certainly no suspicion of it : for 
he supposes Few and Many to be opposite terms and contraries : 
and therefore, according to his usual method of explanation, he 
explains the word Few, by — " Not manyJ^ What would have 
been his astonishment at the following lines ? A comment of 
his upon the following passage, like those he has given on 
Shakespeare, must have been amusing. 

" In nowmer war they but ane few menye, 
Bot thay war quyk and valyeant in melle." 

Douglas, booke 5. p. 153. 

F. — Will this method of yours assist us at all in settling 
the famous and long-contested passage of Shakespeare in The 
Tempest ? 

" These our actors 



(As I foretold you) were all spirits, and 



[" Thou bewray'dst his mothers wantonnesso. 
When she with Mars was meynt in ioyluhiesse." 

Faerie Qneene, book 3. cant. 11, st. 30.] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 595 

Are melted into ayre, into thin ayre : 

And, like the baselesse fabricke of this vision, 

The clowd-capt towres, the gorgeous pallaces. 

The solemne temples, the great globe itselfe, 

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolue, 

And, like this insnbstantiall Pageant faded, 

Leaue not a eacke behind." Temped, p. 15. col. 1. 

Many persons, you know, and those of no mean authority, 
instead of racke read wreck. And Sir Thomas Hanmer 
reads track : which Mr. Steevens says — ^^ may be supported 
by the following passage in the first scene of Timon of 
Athens " — 

" But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on. 
Leaving no tract behind." 

H. — The ignorance and presumption of his commentators 
have shamefully disfigured Shakespeare^s text. The first Folio, 
notwithstanding some few palpable misprints, requires none of 
their alterations. Had they understood English as well as he 
did, they would not have quarrelled with his language. 

F. — But if RACKE is to remain, what does it mean ? 

" Rack (says Mr. Malone) is generally used by our ancient 
writers for a body of clouds sailing along ; or rather, for the 
course of the clouds when in motion. But no instance has yet 
been produced, where it is used to signify a single small fleetirtg 
cloud; in which sense only it can be figuratively applied here. 
I incline therefore to Sir Thomas Hanmer's emendation ; though 
I have not disturbed the text." 

Dr. Johnson concurs with Malone. He says — 

'' Rack {Racka, Dutch. A track.) The clouds as they are 
driven by the wind.'' 

Though I mention their opinions, I am not in the least 
swayed by their authority : for Shakespeare himself gives a flat 
contradiction to their imputed signification of rack ; where he 
says, in Hamlet, 

" But as we often see against &ome storme, 
A silence in the lieauens, the racke stand still. 
The bold tvindes speecJdesse, and tlie orbe below 
As hush as death." 

2 Q 2 



596 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART IT. 

If the RACKE may stand still ; it cannot be — ^^ the course of 
the clouds when in motion." Nor — " the clouds as they are 
driven by the wind.'' 

Upon this passage too^ in the Third Part of Henry VI. 

" Dazzle mine eyes, or doe I see three siinnes ? 
Three glorious suniies, each one a perfect sunne. 
Not separated with the racking clouds, 
But seuer'd in a pale cleare-shining skye." 

Upon this passage Mr. Malone quotes from Shakespeare's 
SonnetSy 

" Anon permit the basest clouds to ride 
With ugly RACK on his celestial face." 

Can Mr. Malone imagine that — "ngly rack'' means here — 
an ugly motion that rides on the sun's face? 

Upon the whole^ What does rack mean ? And observe,, 
you will not satisfy my question by barely suggesting a signi- 
fication ; but you must shew me etymologically, how the word 
rack comes to have the signification which you may attribute 
to it. 

H. — You ask no more than what should always be done by 
those who undertake to explain the meaning of a doubtful 
word. It surely is not sufficient to produce instances of its 
use^ from whence to conjecture a meaning ; though instances 

^ ["Full many a glorious morning have I seen 

Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye 

Kwon pennit the basest clouds to ride 

With ugly rack on his celestial face." — Shakespeare : Sonnet 33. 
Now read the following passage in the First Part of Henry IF. p. 50, 
where the same thought is expressed in different words. 
" Yet heerein will I imitate the sunne, 
Who doth permit the base contayious cloudes 
To smother up his beauty from the world. 
That when he please againe to be himselfe, 
Being wanted, he may be more wondred at. 
By breaking through i\\efonle and ugly mists 
Of vapours, that did seeme to strangle him." 
N.B. In the Sonnet, it is — " permit the basest clouds" — and — " ugly 
rack." 

In the Play, it is — "permit the base contagious clouds" — and — " ugly 
mists of VAPOURS."] 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTllACTION. 597 

are fit to be produced^ in order^ by tlie use of the word^ to 
justify its offered etymology. 

Eack is a very common word, most happily used in The 
Tempest ; and ought not to be displaced because the commenta- 
tors know not its meaning. If such a rule for banishing words 
were adopted, the commentators themselves would, most of 
them, become speechless. 

In Songs and Sonets by the Earl of Surrey and others, p. 61, 
we read, 

"Wlien clouds be driven, then rides the racke." 

By this instance also we may see that rack does not mean 
the course of the clouds when in motion. 

" Some time we see a clowd that 's dragoiiish, 
A VAPOUR some time, like a beare, or lyon. 
That which is now a horse, euen with a thought, 
The RACKE dislimes, and makes it indistinct 
As water is in water." Antony and Cleopatra^ p. 362. col. 1. 

Mr. Steevens says — ^^ The rack dislimes, i. e. The fleeting 
away of the clouds destroys the picture.^^ 

But the horse may be dislimb^d by the approach of the rack, 
as well as by the fleeting away of the clouds : for rack means 
nothing but Vapour; as Shakespeare, in a preceding line of 
this passage, terms it. 

'' The upper part of the scene, which was all of clouds, and made 
artificially to swell and ride like the rack, began to open \ and the air 
clearing, in the top thereof was discovered luno." — Ben Jonson : Masque. 

" A thousand leagues I have cut through empty air, 
Tar swifter than the sayling rack that gallops 
Upon the wings of angry winds." 

JB. and Fletcher : Women pleased. 

"Shall I stray 

In the middle air, and stay 

The sayling rack ? " Ibid. Faithful Shepherdess. 

" The drawin blade he profferis thare and here 
Unto thai monstouris euer as thay drew nere. 
And were not his expert mait Sibylla 
Taucht him thay war but vode gaistis all tha 
But ony bodyis, as waunderand wrachis waist. 
He had apoun tliame ruschit in grete haist." 

Douglas, booke 6. p. 173. 



598 or ABSTRACTION. [part II. 

Upon this passage tlie Glossarist of Douglas says — ^^wrachis_, 
spirits, ghosts. We ouce thought that it might be a typo- 
graphical error for Wrathis, t and c being written the same way 
in the manuscript. But we thought fit not to alter it.'^ 

What a mischievous fury have commentators and editors to 
alter those words of their author which they do not understand ! 
The Glossarist of Douglas did well here not to yiekl to his 
inclination. 

" Na slaw cours of thy liors onweildy 
Thy carte has rendrit to thy inemye, 
Nor yit nane vane wrechis nor gaistis quent 
Thy chare constreuit bakwart for to went." 

Douglas, booke 10. p. 339. 

" Sic hk as, that thay say, in diners placis. 
The WRACHis walkis of goistis that ar dede." Ibid. p. 341. 

*' Thiddir went this wraych or schade of Enee 
That semyt all abasit fast to tie." Ibid. p. 343. 

" Persauyt the mornyng bla, wan and har, 
Wyth cloudy gum and rak." Ibid. Prol. to booke 7. p. 302. 

— ' •" The brychtnes of day 

Inuoluit all with cluddis hid away. 

The rane and roik reft from us sycht of heuin." 

Ibid, booke 3. p. 74. 

" As we may gyf ane similitude, wele like 
Quhen, that the herd has fund the beis bike, 
Closit under ane derne cauerne of stanis 
And fyllit has full sone that htil wanys 
With smoik of soure and bitter rekis stew : 
The beis wythin affrayit all of new 
Ouerthowrt thare hyuis and waxy tentis rynnis, 
With mekil dyn and beming in thare innis, 
Scharpand thare stangis for ire as thay wald ficht : 
Swa here the laithly odoure rais on hicht 
¥rom the fyre blesis, dirk as ony roik, 
That to the ruffis toppis went the smoik. 
The stanis warpit in fast did rebound, 
Within the walUs rais the grete brute and sound, 
And up the reik all wod went in the are." 

Ibid, booke 12. p. 432. 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 599 

" Quhare tliir towris tliou seis doiin fall and sway, 
And stane fra stane doun bet, and reik upryse. 
With stew, ponder, and dust mixt on this wyse." 

Bovglas, booke 2. p. 59. 
*' Furth of his thrott, ane wounderons thing to tell, 
Ane laithlie smok he yeiskis black as liell, 
And all the hous inuoluit with dirk myst, 
That sone the sicht vanyst, or ony wist, 
And EEKY nycht within an litil thraw 
Gan thikkin ouir al the cauerne and ouer blaw, 
And with the mirknes mydlit sparkis of fire. 
The hie curage of Hercules lordlie sire 
Mycht this no langar suffir, bot in the gap 
With haisty stert amyd the fyre he lap. 
And thare, as maist haboundit smokkls dirk, 
With huge sope of reik and liambis myrk, 

Thare has he hi/nt Cacus." Ibid, booke 8. p. 250. 

[" Through th' tops of the high trees she did descry 
A litle smoke, whose vapour thin and light 
Keeking aloft uprolied to the sky." 

Faerie Qiieetie, book 3. cant. 7. st. 5.] 
" You common cry of curs, whose breath I hate 
As REEKE a th' rotten fennes : whose loues I prize 
As the dead carkasses of unburied men, 

That do corrupt my ayre." Coriolanus, act 3. p. 19. 

[" Thou mightst as well say, I love to walke by the Counter-gate, 
wliich is as hatefull to me as the reeke of a lime-kill." — Merry Wiues 
of Windsor, p. 58. col, 1. 

"A paire of reeciiie kisses." Hamlet, p. 271. 

"Reechie recke." Coriolanus, p. 10. col. 1.] 

"A reeKj with us (says Mr. Ray, in his preface to North 
Country Words, p. viii.) signifies, not a smoak, but a Steam, 
arising from any liquor or moist thing heated." 

Rack means merely — That which is Reeked. And, whether 
written rak, wraich, reck, reik, roik ^ or reeke, is the 



^ [Ray has rooky, misty : and the Vocabulary of East Anglia has 
roke, a fog ; roky, foggy. 

" Light thickens : and the crow 

Makes wing to the rooky wood." — MaahelJi, act iii. sc. 2. 

in explaining which Mr. Forby observes, "an East Anglian ploughboy 



600 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

same word differently pronounced and spelled. It is merely tlie 
past tense and therefore past participle^ peac or pec^ of the 
Anglo-Saxon verb Recan, exhalare, To Reek ; and is surely the 
most appropriate term that could be employed by Shakespeare 
in this passage of The Tempest ; to represent to us, that the 
dissolution and annihilation of the globe, and all which it 
inherit, should be so total and compleat ; — they should so " melt 
into ayre, into thin ayre ; " — as not to leave behind them even a 
Vapour^ a Steam, or an Exhalation, to give the slightest notice 
that such things had ever been. 

Since you seem to be in no haste to reply upon me, I con- 
clude that the explanation is satisfactory. And on this subject 
of subaudition I will, at present, exercise your patience no fur- 
ther ; for my own begins to flag. You have now instances of 
my doctrine in, I suppose, about a thousand words. Their 
number may be easily increased. But, I trust, these are suffi- 
cient to discard that imagined operation of the mind, which has 
been termed Abstraction : and to prove, that what we call by 
that name, is merely one of the contrivances of language, for the 
purpose of more speedy communication. 

F. — You have at least amused me, and furnished me with 
matter for reflection : Conviction and satisfaction are plants of 
slower growth. But, to convince you that you have not tired 
me, I beg leave to remind you, that you some time since 
asserted that the Winds, as well as colours, must have their 
denomination from some circumstances attending them; and 
that there must be a meaning in each of their denominations. 
L' Orient Siiid L' Occident, for instance, are intelligible enough; 
but how is it with the other names which all our Northern 
Tanguages give to these same winds ? 

The EAST, the west, the north, the south. 
The French [Est,] Ouest, Nord, and Sud. 
The Dutch Oost, West, Noord, Zuid. 
The German Ost, West, Nord, Sud. 
The Danish Ost, Vest, Nord, Sud. 



would have instantly removed the learned commentator's doubts whether 
it had tiny thing to do with rooks.'" — En.] 



I 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 601 

The Swedish Oster, Wester, Norr, Soder. . 
The Spanish language, besides Oriente, Levante, Poniente, 
Occidentej Aquilon, Septentrion, and Medio dia, has likewise 
Este, Oeste, Nord, Sur. 

What do these mean? For when the English etymologist 
merely refers me to the Anglo-Saxon Bayt, pejX, Noji^, 
Su^, he only changes the written characters_, and calls the same 
language by a different name ; but he gives me no information 
whatever concerning their meaning : and_, lor any rational pur- 
pose, might as well have left me with the same words in the 
modern English character. 

H. — Certainly. It is a trifling etymology that barely refers 
us to some word in another language, either the same or 
similar ; unless the meaning of the word and cause of its im- 
position can be discovered by such reference. And permit me 
to add, that, having once obtained clearly that satisfaction, all 
etymological pursuit beyond it is as trifling. It is a childish 
curiosity, in which the understanding takes no part, and from 
which it can derive no advantage. 

Our winds are named by their distinguishing qualities. And, 
for that purpose, our ancestors (who, unlike their learned 
descendants, knew the meaning of the words they employed 
in discourse) applied to them the past participles of four of 
their common words in their own language : viz. Yppan, 
pej-an, Nyjipan, and 8eo)?an. Irasci, Macerare, Coarctare, 
Coquere. 

East "^ The past participle of yppan or lejipan, irasci. 
West I is yjif eb, yjif b, ypjT : dropping the Ji (which 
North \ many cannot articulate) it becomes jyt ; and so 
South -^ it is much used in the Anglo-Saxon. They who 
cannot pronounce r, usually supply its place by a : hence, I 
suppose, EAST,^ which means angry, enraged. 

^ [*' As whence the simne 'gins his reflection. 

Ship-wracking stormes and direfull thunders break ; " , 

Macbeth, p. 131. 
See Dr. Warburton's note on this passage. 
" Qualis frugifero quercus subhrais in agro, &c." 
"At qui\m\h primo nutet casura sub euro, &c." — Lucan, lib. 1. 

There seems but Httle connexion between the east wind and Gooae- 



603 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

" The wynd Tvffo'tiyh, that is cleped north eest, or wynd of tempest." 
—Bedis, cL 27. 



herry. rre-yjijfian, Yjij^ian, Ce-yjipan : Ireojij'eb, Irojij^eb, Cojaj-b, 
EojajT'c. 

" Gooseberry, n. s. "igoose and berry, because eaten with youug geese 
as sauce.]" — Johnson's Dictionary. 

It is a corruption for Irojijfc berry. Hoyiyz is a tlwrnhusli ; so that 
it means, the herry of the thornhush. S. Johnson says " Gorse [IroTijr, 
Saxon,] Furze ; a thick prickly shrub that bears yellow flowers in win- 
ter." Skinner says " Goss or Gors ; ab A.-S. Ireojif r, Xjoyxyx,, erica." 

rre-ojij^T, i. e. enraged, angry. Ije-yjipan, irritare. 

" Give all present a sprig of Eosemary, hollies or gorses." — A codicil 
to the last will and testament of James Clegg, conjurer ; May 25, 1751. 

" Then I beat my tabor, 

At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their ears, 
Ad vane' d their eye-lids, lifted up their noses 
As they smelt musick ; so I charm'd their ears. 
That calf-like, they my lowing follow'd, through 
Tooth' d briers, sharp furzes, 'pricking goss, and thorns. 
Which entered their frail shins'' 

Tempest, Malone's edition, p. 81. 

Steevens's Note. — " I know not how Shakespeare distinguished goss 
ivom furze ; for what he caWs furze, is called goss or gorse in the mid- 
land counties." 

Toilet's Note. — " By the latter, Shakespeare means the low sort of 
GORSE that only grows upon wet ground, and which is well described 
by the name of whins in Markham's Farewell to Husbandry. It has 
prickles like those on a rose tree or gooseberry." 

" A troope of cavalliers searcht Mr. Needham's house : they found 
not him, for he hid himselfe in the gorse, and so escaped them." — 
Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, p. 101. 

" He rid along, muttering that it was to no purpose, and when he 
came to Saxondale gorse, purposely lost himselfe and his forlorne hope." 
—Ibid. p. 207. 

" The country adjoining being a dreary waste, many thousand acres 
together being entirely overrun with gorse or furze." — Ibid. p. 331. 
note. 

" They are under rights of commons, and cannot be touched without 
distinct acts of parliament to permit the plough to produce grass and 
corn, instead of gorse and ling." — Arthur Young in a Letter to Cobbett's 
FoUtical Register, Vol. 13. No. 10. March 5, 1808.] 

[Lye has jojijrt, and jojij^c-beam, rubus. As another conjecture with 
regard to Gooseberry, it is suggested that it may have been Gross- 
berry {Ribes Grossularia), as distinguished from the smaller Ribes, or 
Currants, which iu German are Johaunisbeerei? , whilst the Gooseberries 



CH. IV.] OF ABSTRACTION. 603 

In the modern version^ 

" A tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon." — Acts, cli. 27. v. 14. 
Macbeth says^ (act 4. p. 144.) 
" Though you untye the windes, and let them light 
Against the churches : though the yesty wanes 
Confound and swallow nauigation up : 
Though bladed corne be lodg'd, and trees blown downe, 
Though castles topple on their warders heads : 
Though pallaces and p^Tamids do slope 
Their heads to their foundations : though the treasure 
Of nature's germaine tumble altogether 
Euen till destruction sicken." 
"Yesty waves (says S. Johnson), that is foaming or 
frothy.'' 

A little matter however always makes the waves frothy. 
But Johnson knew what the yeast of beer was ; (which 
comes indeed from the same verb) and the epithet Yesty con- 
veyed to him no stronger idea than that of fermentation. But 
YESTY here is the Anglo-Saxon yj'Cij, leftij, procellosus^ 

are Gross-{JoJiannis) heeren. In French Groseille, and Petit Groseille. 
In Kent black currants are, I am told, called Gazles. 

A reference to the various designations collected by Nemnich in his 
Folyylotten-Lexicon der NatiirgeschicMe seems, however, to leave no 
doubt that our word gooseberry is no other than the name given to 
the same fruit by our Teutonic neighbours : e. g. 

Germ. Krausheere, Krdnselbeei'e, Gruselbeere, Grosselheere, GraseTbeere^ 
Kreutzbeere, Krittzbeere, Christbeere, (Uva Christi, Littleton.) 

Dutch, Kruisbessen, Kroesbaeye : see Kilian. — Dan. & Sw. Krusbcer. 

Uva crispa is given as the Latin name ; and kraus, kroes, is crispus. 
However, the signification of the name has been so much lost sight of, 
that it seems to have been modified to suit the fancied reference of it 
to a Cross, a Cruse, a Goose, &c. The fruit is called Grozer in Scotland 
and the North of England : see Brockett and Nemnich. In Norfolk the 
A.-S. name Thepes, or Febes^ is still retained. 

If the relation between the Teutonic Grosselbeere, &c. and the low 
Latin Grossularia seems very probable, still the question remains as to 
which is the original, whether kroes, crispus, or grossulus, a little fig. 
Gerarde, booke 3. ch. 22. gives the following account: — "This shrub 
hath no name among the old writers, who, as we deeme knew it not, 
or else esteemed it not ; tlie later writers call it in Latine, C?'ossularia : 
and oftentimes of the berries, Uva Crispa, Uva Spina, Uva Spinella, and 
Uva Crispina : in high Dutch Kruselbeer ; in low Dutch Stekelbessen. 

in English, Gooseberry, Goose-berry bush, and Eea-bcrry bush in 

Chesliire, my native country." — Ed.] 



604 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

stormy, enraged : which much better accords with Shake- 
speare^s high- charged description than the wretched allusion 
to fermenting beer. 

pej'cb^ yey^b, yeyt, or west^ is the past participle of pej'an, 
macerarcj 7^o Wet. 

NoiiTH_, i. e. Nyppe^-, or Nypp^_, the third person singular 
of Nyppan_, coarctare^ constringere. Nord and norr (as it is 
in the other European languages) is the past participle of the 
same verb. 

*' Prosts that constrain the ground, and -birth deny 
To flowers that in its womb expecting lie." 

Dryden : Astrcea redux. 

In the Anglo-Saxon Nipp^ or Nypp'S is also the name for 
a prison^ or any place which narroweth or closely confines a 
person. 

South is the past tense and past participle of SeoJ^an^ 
coquere^ To Seethe. 

" Peter fyshed for hys foode, and hys fellowe Andrewe, 
Some they sold and some they sotii, and so they lined both." 

Vision of Fierce JPloitglwian, pass. 16. fob 81. p. 2. 

"Nero gouerned aU the peoples that the violent wyne Nothus 
skorcyth and baketh the brennyng sandes by hys dry heate, that is to 
say, al the peoples in the southe." — Boecim, fol. 230. p. 1. col. 1. 

Dryden, whose practical knowledge of English was (beyond 
all others) exquisite and wonderful, says in his Don Sebastian, 
(act 2. sc. 2.) 

" Here the warm planet ripens and sublimes 
The well-baked beauties of the southeen climes." 

I need not notice to you that the French, sud, and our 
English word suns, &c. is the same as Sod or Sodden. 
And now, I suppose, I may conclude the subject. 



CHAPTEE V. 

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

F. — I STILL wish for an explanation of one word more ; which, 
on account of its extreme importance, ought not to be omitted. 
What is TRUTH ? 



CH. v.] OF ABSTRACTION. 605 

You know,, wlien Pilate had asked the same question, lie 
went out, and would not stay for tlie answer.^ And from 
tliat time to this, no answer has been given. And from that 
time to this, mankind have been wrangling and tearing each 
other to pieces for the truth,^ without once considering the 
meaning of the word. 

H. — In the gospel of John, it is as you have stated. But in 
the gospel of Nichodemus (which, I doubt not, had originally 
its full share in the conversion of the world to Christianity^) 

Pilate awaits the answer, and has it " Thou sayest that I 

am a kynge, and to that I was borne, and for to declare to the 
worlde that who soo be of trouth wyli here my worde. Than 



^ See John, xviii. 38. "What is Truth? said jesting Pihite; and 
would not stay for an answer." — Bacon s Essays. 

^ [" Canonica, in philosophical history, an appellation given by 
Epicurus to his doctrine of logic. It was called Canonica, as consist- 
ing of a few canons or rules for directing the understanding in tJie 
pursuit and knowledge of truth. Epicnrus's Canonica is represented as 
a very slight and insufficient logic by several of the antients, who pnt a 
great value on his ethics and physics. Laertius even assures us that 
the Epicureans rejected logic as a superfluous science; and Plutarch 
complains that Epicurus made an imskilful and preposterous use of syl- 
logisms. But these censures seem too severe. Epicurus was not averse 
to the study of logic, but even gave better rules in this art than those 
philosophers who aimed at no glory but that of logics. He only seems 
to have rejected the dialects of the Stoics, as full of vain subtilties 
and deceits, and fitted rather for parade and disputation than real use. 
The stress of Epicurus' s Canonica consists in his doctrine of the criteria 
of truth. All questions in philosophy are either concerning icords or 
things: concerning things ice seek their truth; concerning words, their 
signification: things are either natural or moral; and the former are 
either perceived by sense or by the understanding. Hence, according to 
Epicurus, arise three criterions of truth, viz. sense, anticipation or pr£e- 
notion, and passion. The great canon or principal of Epicurus's logic 
is, that the senses a?'e never deceived ; and therefore that every sensation 
or perception of an appearance is true.'' — Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 
4. p. 119.] 

^ Nichodemus was the Patron Apostle of our ancestors the Anglo- 
Saxons and their immediate descendants : hi?^ospel was their favourite 
authority : and it was translated for their use, both into Anglo-Saxon 
and into old English ; which translations still remain, and the latter of 
them was one amongst the first books printed. By Wynkyn de Worde. 
Anno 1511. 



606 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

sayd Pylate^ What is trouth^ By thy worde there is but 
lytell trouth in the worlde. Our Lorde sayd to Pylate, 
Understande trouth how that it is judged in erth of them that 
dwell therin.^^ — Nychodemus Gospell, eh. 2. 

F.— WeU, What say you to it? 

H. — That the story is better told by John : for the answer 
was not worth the staying for. And yet there is something in 
it perhaps : for it declares that " truth is judged in erth of them 
that dwell therin.^^ However^ this word will give us no trouble. 
Like the other words^ true is also a past participle of the verb 
TKA^A^s Tpeopan^ confidere, To Think, To Believe firmly , 
To be- thoroughly persuaded of. To Trow. 

" Marke it, Nuncle. 
Haue more then thou showest, 
Speake lesse then thou knowest, 
Lend lesse then thou owest, 
Eide more then thou goest, 
Learne more then thou trowest." — Lear, p. 288. 

This past participle was antiently written trew/ which is 
the regular past tense of trow ; as the verbs To Blow, To 
Crow, To Grow, To Know, To Throw, give us in the past 
tense, Blew, Crew, Greiv, Knew, Threw. ^ Of which had the 
learned Dr. Gil been aware, he would not, in his Loyonomia 



^ [" Thou minde, of yeeres and of obliuion foe, 
Of what so is, guardaine and steward trew." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, Translated ^y jR. C. p. 21. 

" A bedroll long and trew he rcckoneth." 

Ibid. p. 22. 
" Graunt that the heau'ns thereof giue evidence, 
And as yourselfe expound, so be it trew." — Ibid. p. 85. ' 

" Leaning the charge of me, and of the state 
To brother, whom he bare a loue so trew." — Ibid. cant. 4. st. 40. 



Eoberte Whytinton, poete laureate, in his translation of Tnllye's 
Offyces, fyrst booke, writesjpREWE. 

" In kepynge trewe tutche and promesse in bargaynynge."] 

^ [To Show — Past participle sJiew. 

To Sow setv. 

To Draw drefv.] 



CH. v.] OF ABSTRACTION. 607 

Anglica, p. 64_, have told us that tru^ ratus_, was "verbale 
anomalum of I trou^ reor/' 

Of this I need not give you any instances ; because the word 
is perpetually written trew, by all our antient authors in prose 
and verse, from the time of Edward the third to Edward the 
sixth. 

True, as we now write it; or, trew, as it was formerly 
written; means simply and merely — That which is trowed.^ 
And, instead of its being a rare commodity upon earth; ex- 
cept only in words, there is nothing but truth in the 
world.^ 

That every man, in his communication with others, should 
speak that which he troweth, is of so great importance to 
mankind ; that it ought not to surprize us, if we find the most 
extravagant and exaggerated praises bestowed upon truth. 
But truth supposes mankind : for whom and hy whom alone 
the word is formed, and to whom only it is applicable.^ If no 
man, no truth. There is therefore no such thing as eternal, 
immutable, everlasting truth ; unless mankind, such as they 
are at present, be also eternal, immutable, and everlasting. 
Two persons may contradict each other, and yet both speak 
TRUTH : for the truth of one person may be opposite to the 
truth of another. To speak truth may be a vice as well as a 
virtue : for there are many occasions where it ought not to be 
spoken. 

[" Sed incidiuit saepe tempora, cum ea quce maxime videntur digna 
esse justo homine, eoque quera virum bonum dicimus, comrautantur, 
fiuntque contraria ; ut non reddere depositum, etiam nefarioso promissum 
faceve, qiiseque pertinent ad veritatem et ad iidem, ea negare interdum et 
non servare, sit justum." — Tully's Offices.'] 



^ Mar. Casaubon derives true from the Greek aTpeKrjs ; and arpeKTjs 
from arperjs, impavidus. 

^ [" That which is true onely is, and the rest is not at all." — Spen- 
ser^s View of the State of Ireland, Todd's ed. 1805. p. 501.] 

' [" Cio ben sappiam, che la diviiia essenza, 
In cui tutti viviamo, a nostre nienti 
Aia del vero dono la conosccnza." 

Metastauo, La Morte di Catone. Ed.ParJgi. tom. 10. ]). 107.] 



608 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" Quantiinque il simular sia le piu volte 
Kipreso, e dia di mala mente indicj ; 
Si trova pur in molte cose e molte, 
Aver fatti evident! beneficj ; 
E danni, e biasmi, e morti aver gia tolte : 
Che non conversiam sempre con gli amici 
In questa, assai piu oscura die serena, 
Mortal vita ; tutta d' iuvidia plena." 

Orlando Fiirioso, cant. 4. st. 1. 

F, — If TROWED be the single meaning of the term true^ I 
agree that these and many other consequences will follow : for 
there can be nothing trowed ; unless there are persons trow- 
ing. And men may trow differently. And there are reasons 
enough in this world, why every man should not always know 
what every other man thinks. But are the corresponding and 
the equivalent words in other languages resolvable in the same 
manner as true ? Does the Latin Verum also mean trowed ? 

H. — It means nothing else. Res, a thing, gives us Reor, 
i. e. I am Thing -ed : Ve-reor, I am strongly Thing ed ; for Ve 
in Latin composition means Valde, i. e. Valide. And Verum, 
i. e. strongly impressed upon the mind, is the contracted par- 
ticiple of Vereor} And hence the distinction between Vereri 
and Metuere in Latin : " Veretu?' liber, Metuit servus.^' Hence 
also Revereor. 

F.-^I am Thing ed ! Who ever used such language before? 
Why, this is worse than reor, which Quinctilian (lib. 8. cap. 3.) 
calls a Horrid word. Reor, however, is a deponent, and means 
/ think. 

H. — And do you imagine there ever was such a thing as a 
deponent verb ; except for the purpose of translation, or of con- 
cealing our ignorance of the original meaning of the verb? 
The doctrine of deponents is not for men, but for children; 
who, at the beginning, must learn implicitly, and not be dis- 



^ Vossius doubts not that " Vereor est a Ve, id est Valde, et Reor" 
But he affirms that Verum is not "a Ve valde, et reor; quia Vera ani- 
raura maxime afficiant; sed ab cpeiv, hoc est, dicere ; quia quod dicitur, 
ed ; quodque est, lioc dicitur; ut lisec duo sint avTiaTpe^ovra, nempe in 
sermone tab, qualeni esse convenit." — The meaning- of tlie verb Ed, 
would here have prevented his mistake. 



CH. v.] OF ABSTRACTION. 609 

turbed or bewildered with a reason for every thing : which reason 
they would not understand^ even if the teacher was always able 
to give it. You do not call Think a deponent. And yet it is 
as much a deponent as Reor. Remember, where we now say 
1 Think J the antient expression was — Me thinketh^ i. e. Me 
Thingethj It Thingeth me. 

"Where shall we sojourne till our coronation ? 
Where it thinks best unto your royall selfe," 

Richard 111.^.1%^. 

For observe, the terminating k or g is the only differcnee 
(and that little enough) between Think and Thing. Is not that 
circumstance worth some consideration here ? Perhaps you 
will find that the common vulgar pronunciation of Nothink^ 
instead of Nothing , is not so very absurd as our contrary fashion 
makes it appear. 

Bishop Hooper so wrote it. 

** Mens yeyes be obedient unto the Creatour, that they may se on 
THINK, and yet not another." — A Declaracion of Christe, By lohan 
Hoper, cap. 8. 

[" ©a nasphe he nan j^etl hpa^ji he p'cran mihte, jzofi^an^e nan 
heopon nolbe hme abejian, ne nan jiice nsej- ])e \\iy mihre beon onjean 
Gobej" pillan ])e jepojihte ealle DINC." 

" Then had he no seat where he might sit, for that no part of heaven, 
would bear him, nor was there any kingdom that might be his against 
the will of God who made all things." — Mlfric. de Veteri Testamento, 
p. 4.] 

But your question has almost betrayed me unaware into a 
subject prematurely ; which will be more in its place, when, in 
some future conversation, we inquire into the nature of the 
Verb ; and especially of the Verb Substantive (as it is called) 
To Be, Esse, Existere, Extare, &c. Where we must neces- 
sarily canvass the meaning of the words Thing, Essence, Sub- 
stance, Being, Real, &c. And thither I desire to refer it. 



^ [See above, p. 292, and Additional Notes. — Ed.] 
* Mr. Locke, in the second book of his Essay, chap, xxxii. treats of 
True and False ideas: and is much distressed throughout the whole 

2 R 



610 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

In the mean time, if you reject my explanation of true ; 
find outj if you can, some other possible meaning of the word : 
or content yourself, with Johnson, by saying that true is — 
'^ not False J^ And false is — ^^ not True" For so he explains 
the words. 

F. — Be it so. But you have not answered my original ques- 
tion. I asked the meaning of the abstract truth : and you 
have attempted to explain the concrete true. Is truth also a 
participle ? 

H. — No. Like North (which I mentioned before, p. 604,) 
it is the third person singular of the Indicative tr©w. It was 
formerly written Troweth, Troivth, Trouthy and Troth} And 



chapter ; because he had not in his mind any determinate meaning of 
the word true. 

In Section 2, he says — " Both ideas and words may be said to be 
iYue in a metap/ii/sical sense of the word truth; as all other things, 
that any way exist, are said to be true ; i. e. really to be such as they 
exist." 

In Section 26, he says — " Upon the whole matter, I think that our 
ideas, as they are considered by the mind, either in reference to the 
proper signification of their names, or in reference to the reality of 
THINGS, may very fitly be caU'd right or wrong ideas. But if any one 
had rather call them true or false, 'tis fit he use a liberty, which every 
one has, to call things by those names he thinks best." 

If that excellent man had himself followed here the advice which, in 
the ninth chapter of his third book, Sect. 16. he gave to his disputing 
friends concerning the word Liquor : If he had followed his own rule, 
previously to writing about true and false ideas ; and had determined 
what meaning he applied to true, being, thing, real, bight, wrong; 
he could not have written the above-quoted sentences : which exceed- 
ingly distress the reader, who searches for a meaning where there is none 
to be found. 

^ [" For I, playing no part of no one side, but sitting downe as in- 
different looker on, neither Imperiall nor French, but flat English, do 
purpose with troth to report the matter : and seyng I shall lyve under 
such a Prince as King Edward is, and in such a' count rey as England 
is, (I thank God) I shall have neither neede to flatter the one side for 
profite, nor cause to fear the other side for displeasure. Tlierefore let 
my purpose of reportyng the trouth as much content you, as the 
meane handlyng of the matter may mislike you." — H. AscJiam to John 
Aately, p. 6. 



CH. v.] OF ABSTRACTION. 611 

it means — (aliquid, any thing, something) that which one 
TR0WETH_, i. e. thinketh^ or firmly believeth.^ 

F. — Here then is another source of what has been called 
abstract terms; or rather (as you say) another method of 
shortening communication by artificial substantives ; for in this 
case one single word stands for a whole sentence. But is this 
frequently employed ? 

H. — Yes. Very frequently. So, besides North and Truth, 
we have 

Girth — That which Girdethj Gird'th, Girth. 

["It would have cleft him to the girding place." — (i. e. to the 
GIRTH; or place which, one Girdetk.) 

Faerie Queene, book 4. cant. 8. st. 43.] 

Warmth — That which Warmeth. 

Filth — Whatsoever Fileth ; antiently used where we now say 
Defileth. See before foul, p. 487. 

*' Quhat hard mischance filit so thy plesand face ? 
Or quhy se I thay fell woundis.^ allace." 

Douglas, booke 3. p. 48, 

" Caiisit me behald myne owne childe slane, alace, 
And wyth hys blude filit the faderis face." — Ibid. p. 57. 

[" The corne is theyrs, let other thresh. 

Their handes they may not file." — Shepheards Calender : July."] 



" Yet speaking thus much of trouth as was onely in the brest of 
Monsieur d'Arras on the Emperour's side, or in Baron Hadeck on 
Duke Maurice side, with whom and with on other of his counsell he 
onely conferred all his purposes three yeares before he brake out with 
the Emperor : But I meane such a troth as by conference and common 
consent amongest all the Ambassadores and Agentes in this Court and 
other witty and indifferent heades beside was generally conferred and 
agreed upon." — E. Ascham to John Astely, p. 6. 

" That doubtfull of the troth, and in suspence. 
The towne rose not in armes for my defence," 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, Tramlated by B. C. 
cant. 4. st. 54.] 

^ If Mr. WoUaston had first settled the meaning of the word, he would 
not have made truth the basis of his system. 

2 R 2 ' 



612 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

Tilth — Any manner of operation which Tilleth, i. e. lifteth, 
or turneth up_, or raiseth the earth. See before tilt^ p. 352. 

" Por he fonde of his owne wit 
The fyrst crafte of plough tillynge." 

Gower, hb. 5. foL 90. p. 1. coh 2. 

i. e. The crafty of lifting up the earth with ar plough. 

Wealth — That which enricheth; the third person singular 
of pelejiaUj locupletare, &c. 

[" God hathe ordeyned man in this worlde, as it were the verye 
image of hym selfe, to the intent that he, as it were a god in erth, 
shnld prouide for the welthe of al creatures." — Bellum Erasmi : By 
Berthelet, 1534, p. 5. 2. 

" There as one is for his offence greuously punished, it is the welthy 
warnynge of all other." — Ibid. p. 30. 2.] 

Health — That which Healeth, or maketh one to be HaUj or 
WHOLE. See before hale, p. 590. 

Dearth — The third person singular of the English (from 
the Anglo-Saxon verb Depian, nocere, Isedere) To Dere, It 
means, some, or any, season, weather, or other cause, which 
DERETH, i. e. maketh dear, hurteth or doth mischief. 

The English verb To Dere was formerly in common use. 

" No deuil shal you dere, ne fere you in your doing.'* 

Vision of P. Ploughman, pass. 8. fol. 36. p. 2. 

*' Shal no deuyl at his deathes daye dere him a mite." 

Ibid. fol. 37. p. 1. 

** Shal neuer deuil you dere, ne death in soule greue." 

Ibid. pass. 18. fol. 91. p. 2. 

"No dynte shal him dere." Ibid, pass. 19. fol. 97. p. 1. 

" Whan he was proudest in his gere. 
And thought nothyng might him dere." 

Gower, Hb. 1. fol. 18. p. 2. col. 2. 

" As for that tyme I dare well swere, 
None other sorowe maie me dere." Ibid. fol. 23. p. 1. col. 2. 

" That with his swerd, and with his spere, 
He might not the serpent dere." 

Ibid, lib. 5. fol. 103. p. 2. col. 2. 



CH. v.] OF ABSTRACTION. 613 

" Upon a day as he was mery 

As though ther might him no thinge derie." 

Gower, lib. 6. fol. 135. p, 2. col. 2. 
" His good kynge so weU adresseth, 

That all his fo men he represseth : 

So that there maie no man hym deee." 

Ibid. lib. 7. fol. 164. p. 1. col. 2. 
" For of knighthode thordre wolde. 

That thei defende and kepe sholde 

The common right, and the franchise 

Of holy churche in all wise : 

So that no wicked man it deee." — Ihid. lib. 8. fol. 19. p. 1. col. 1. 

" And ye shall both anon unto me swere 
That ye shall neuer more my countre derb 
Ne make warre upon me nyght ne day." 

KnygMes TaUy fol. 5. p. 2. col. 1. 
*' And fel in speche of Telophus the king 
And of Achilles for his queynte spere 
For he couthe with it heale and dere." 

Squiers Tale, fol. 25. p. 2. col. 2. 
" For though fortune may nat angel dere, 
From hye degree yet fel he for his synne." 

Monkes Tale, fol. 83. p. 2. col. 2. 

" No thynge shall dere them ne dysease them." — Biues and Pauper, 
3d Comm. cap. 13. 

" The womans synne was lesse greuous than Adams synne and lesse 
dered mankynde." — Ibid. 6th Comm. cap. 10. 

Shakespeare^ in the Tempest j (act 3. sc. 1.) says, 

" We haue lost your son, &c. 
The fault 's your owne, 
So is the deer'st oth' losse." 

Again, in Timon of Athens, (Act 5. sc. 3. p. 97.) 

** Our hope in him is dead : let us retume, 

And straine what other meanes is left unto us 

In our DEERE peril." ^ 

[" thou sweete king-killer, and deare diuorce 

Twixt naturall sunne and fire." ["son and sire."] 

Jbid. act. 4. sc. 3.] 

And in Julius Ccesar, (act 2. p. 120,) 



614 or ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" That I did loue thee Caesar, 'tis true : 
If then thy spirit looke upon us now, 
Shall it not greeue thee deerer then thy death. 
To see thy Antony making his peace, 
Shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes ? " 

And J iu Hamlet y 

" Would I had met my dearest foe in heauen, 
Ere I had euer seene that day." 

Johnson and Malone, who trusted to their Latin to explain 
his English, for Deer and Deer est, would have us read Dire 
and Direst ; not knowing that Dejie and Dejiienb mean hurt 
and hurting, mischief and mischievous: and that their Latin 
Dirv^ is from our Anglo-Saxon Dejie, which they would 
expunge.^ 

Mirth — That which dissipateth, viz. care, sorrow, melan- 
choly, &c. the third person singular of the Indicative of GDyp- 
jian. See before morrow, p. 461. 

The Anglo-Saxons likewise used COoji'S, ClDop'Se, Mors, 
i. e. Quod dissipat (subaud. Vitam) j the third person of the 
same verb OOypjian,^ To Mar, &c. and having itself the same 
meaning as Mirth ; but a different application and subaudition. 
Hence, from GOoji'Se, murther, the French Meurtre, and the 
Latin Mors. 



^ " Martinius, in voce pretiosus censet Angl. deare affine esse 
TO 8t]pov, diuturnum ; quod majoris pretii sint ac pluris fiant quae sunt 
durabiliora. Ita quoque B. I)?^i/r, pretiosus, derivant a Dui/ren, durare." 
— Junius. 

. " Dear alludit Gr. e?jpaa), consector, capto, venor ; quia quae pretiosa 
sunt omnes captant." — Skinner. 

" Dirus, Dei ira natus." — FesUis. 

" DiRUM est triste, iafestum et quasi Deorum ira raissura." — Nannius. 
Servius says it is a Sabine word — "Sabini et XJmbri, quae nos Mala^ 
dira appellant." 

Vossius and Dacier will at all events have it from the Greek Aetvos ; N 
mutato in r. 

^ [" A good man is subject, like other mortals, to all the influences of 
natural evil; liis harvest is not spared bv the tempest, nor his cattle by 
the u\]J!iJiki^:' -Adventurer, Edit. 1797. vol. 4. No. 120. p. 124.] 



CH. v.] OF ABSTRACTION. 635 

Growth. The third person of To Ch^oia. 

Birth. The third person of To Bear. See before born, p. 
356. 

KuTH. The third person of To Rue. J^pypian, misereri. 

Sheath. The third person of 8ceaban, segregare. See before 
Shade J and Shed, p. 591. 

Drougth. A.-S. Dpujo^. It was formerly written dry- 
eth_, dryth^ and drith. 

"When ouermuch heate or dryeth in the matrice is cause of the 
hynderaunce of conception." — JBp'th of Manki/nde, (1540) boke 3. fol. 
83. p. 1. 

" They whiche be compounde, are in compounde or myxte quahties : 
as heate and moisture, heate and drythe." — Castel of Helth, (154<1) 
fol. 3. p. 1. 

"Hot wynes, &c. be noyfuU to theym whyche be choleryke, because 
they be in the highest degree of heate and drythe, aboue the just 
temperaunce of mannes body in that complexion." — Ibid, boke 2. cap. 4, 
fol. 17. p. 2. 

" Where great weerinesse or drith greueth the body, their ought the 
dyner to be the lesse." — Ibid. cap. 27. fol. 41. p. 2. 

Drougth is, that which Dryeth, the third person singular of 
the Indicative of Djiijan, Dpujan, arescere. 

Dry, A.-S. Djiij, is the past participle of the same verb. 
As is also DRUGS, a name common to all Europe, and which 
means Dryed (subaud. Herbs, roots, plants, &c.). When we 
say, that any thing is a mere drug ; we mean Dryed up, 
worthless. 

Sloth — That which Sloweth, or maketh one SloWj the 
third person of the Indicative of Slapian. See before slow, 
p. 562. 

[" The Lincolneshire commanders inform'd our's of the slowth and 
untoward carriage of Ballard." — Lyfe of Col. Hutchinson, p. 121.] 

Strength — That which Stringeth, or maketh one Strong, 
A.-S. fcjienj. See before strong,* p. 393. 



* Mer. Casaubon derives strong from Eo-rT/piy/Aci/oy. 

" Videri potest (says Junius) affine Gr. Srpayyevo) vel IrpayyiC*^, tor- 
queo, stringo." 

Skinner derives it from the Latin Strenuva a Gr. 2TpT]vr)9, aspcr, acutus : 
he adds — " Alludit et Gr. pfovwo), ptowvpi, corroboro." 



616 OF ABSTRACTION. [pART II. 

Mouth. (MATQItI>)— That which Eateth; the third per- 
son of the Indicative of MjVTQA^^a GDetian_, edere.^ See 
before meat_, p. 550. 

Moth — The name of an insect that Eateth or '* Fretteth a 
garment'^ (jipetcan, vorare). It is the same word as Mouth, 
diflPerently written^ pronounced and applied. 

Junius indeed says_, of moth — " tanquam sit ex fjbO')(Pripo^, ' 
pravus ; propter importunam scelestissimi insecti malitiam." 

And Skinner — " Hoc credo, a fjuvBacdj uligine putresco.'^ 

Tooth (TAnQl^)— That which Tuggeth; the third person 
singular of the Indicative of TAHQAWs Teo^an, To Tug. 
[The Collegers at Eton are jestingly called Tugmutton,'] 

Faith. A.-S. fsej^ — That which one covenanteth or en- 
gageth. It was formerly written faieth. 

" Sainct Paule speaketh of them, where he irriteth that the tjone 
shoulde come when some erring in the fateth, shoulde prohibite ma- 
nage." — Br. Martin, Of Priestes unlauful Mariages, ch. 2. p. 15. 

"The very profession of faieth, by the whiche we beleue on the 
Eather, the Sonne, and the Holy Ghoste, of what writyng haue we 
this?"— J/5^■^. p. 20. 

" In sainct Gregories daies, at whose handes Englande was learned the 
faieth of Christ." — Ibid. ch. 8. p. 116. 

It is the third person singular of the Indicative of F3e3an_, pan- 
gere, pagere, To Engage, To Covenant, To Contract. 

Smith — One who Smlteth, scil. with the hammer, &c. 
Thus we have^ Blacksmith, Whitesmith, Silversmith, Gold- 
smith, Coppersmith, Anchorsmith, &c. 

" A softe pace he wente oner the strete, 
Unto a SMYTH men callen Dan Gerueys, 



^ Minshcw and Jnnius derive mouth from MvOos, sermo. — [How will 
Mr. Tooke's derivation accord with the Gothic MflNtl^S, Ger. Mund? 
See Grimm, ii. 233. — En.] 

^ [But the IsLandic has also, (besides trasmid, a carpenter, Jima smid, 
an architect, &c.) vefsmld, a weaver, and even Uodsmider, a poet. See 
Ihre, V. Smlda. And in A.-S. we have pijj-mi^, a warrior, belli fabri- 
cator. — Ed.] 



CH. v.] OF ABSTRACTION. 617 

That in his forge smiteth ^ plowe harneys, 
He sharpeth Shares and culters besyly." 

Myllers Tale, fol. 14. p. 2. col. 2. 

This name was given to all who smote with the hammer. 
What we now call a carpenter, was also antiently called a 
SMITH. The French word Carpenter was not commonly used 
in England in the reign of Edward the third. The translation 
of the New Testament_, which is ascribed to Wicliffe, proves to 
us that at that time smith and Carpenter were synonymous; 
and the latter then newly introduced into the language. 

" He bigan to teche in a sinagoge, and manye heeringe wondriden 
in his teching, seiynge, Of whennes ben alle these thingis to this man, 
and what is the wisdom whiche is gouiin to him, and suche vertues that 
ben maad by hise hondis ? Wher this is not a smith, ether a carpentered 
the sone of Marie ? "—Jfar^, ch. 6. v. 2, 3. 

Stealth — The manner by which one stealeth. 

Month — Moon was formerly written Mone ; and month was 
written moneth. It means the period in which that planet 
Monethj or compleateth its orbit. 

" And he his trouth leyd to borowe 

To come, and if that he Hue maie, 

Ageine within a monetu daie." — Gower^ lib. 4. fol. 67. p. 1. col. 2. 
" His wife unto the sea hym brought 

With all hir herte, and hym besought, 

That he the tyme hir wolde seyue, 

"VVhan that he thought come ageyne, 

Within, he saith, two monethes daie." 

Ibid. lib. 5. fol. 79. p. 2. col. 1. 

Earth — That which one Ereth or Eareth, i. e. plougheth. 
It is the third person of the Indicative of Gjiian, arare. To Ere, 
To Eare, or To Plough, 

" He that eritii, owith to eee in hope." 1 CorinthieSj ch. 9. v. 10. 

" I haue an halfe acre to erie by the hygh waye ; 
Had I ERiED thys halfe acre and sowed it after, 
I would wend w)'th you." Vision, of P. Ploughman, fol. 31. p. 1. 

^ [Some editions read smithed ; perhaps smitheth ? — Ed.] 



618 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

" The mans honde doth what he male, 
To helpe it forth, and make it riche : ' 

And for thy men it delue and diche, 
And EEEN it with strength of plough." 

Gower, lib. 1. fol. 26. p. 1. col. 1. 
" I haue, God wotte, a large /^/^ to ere. 
And weked ben the oxen in the plowe." 

KnigJites Tale^ fol. 1. p. 1. col. 1. 
" His fine flokkis pasturit to and fra, 
Fine bowis of ky unto his hame reparit. 
And with ane hundreth plewis the land he arit." 

Douglas, booke 7. p. 226. 
" Taucht thame to grub the wynes, and al the art 
To ERE, and saw the cornes, and yoik the cart." 

Ibid, booke 13. p. 475. 

"He that eres my land, spares my teame, and giues mee leaue to 
inne the crop."— ^ZZ« Well that Ends Well, p. 233. 

" That power I haue, discharge, and let them goe 
To eare the land." Richard II. p. 35. 

Instead of earth, Douglas and some other antient authors 
use ERD, i. e. Ered, Er'd— That which is ploughed. The past 
participle of the same verb. 

" The nicht folio wis, and euery weiy wicht 
Throw out the erd has caucht anone richt 
The sound plesand slepe thame likit best." 

Douglas, booke 4. p. 118. 
" Thare speris stikkyng in the erd did stand." 

Ibid, booke 6. p. 187. 
" Of youth thay be accustumed to be skant. 
The erde with pleuch and harrowis to dant." 

Ibid, booke 9. p. 299. 
" thou Faunus, help, help, I the pray, 
And thou, Tellus, maist nobill god of erd." ^ 

Ibid, booke 12. p. 440. 

Math — A.-S. OQape'S. The third person singular of the 
indicative of CQapan, metere, To Mow. 



^ "Where we now say earth, the Germans use erde ; which Vossius 
derives from the Hebrew. " Ab Hcbraeo est etiam Germanicum erd." 



CH. v.] ' OF ABSTRACTION. 619 

As Latter Math — i. e. That which one moweth^ later^ or 
after the former mowing. 

" Lo, now of al sic furour and efFere, 
The lattir MeitJi and terme is present here." 

DouglaSy booke 13. p. 454. 

Broth — the third person of the indicative of Bpipan, co- 
quere. That which one Bjiipe^. Hence the old English say- 
ing, of a man who has killed himself with drinking, — " He has 
fairly drunk up his Broth : " — The Italian Brodo is the past 
participle of the same verb. That which is Bjiiped, Bpiob. 

[Bath. 

" For in her streaming blood he did embay 
His little hands." Faerie Queene, booke 2. cant. 1. st. 40.] 

Wath — i. e. where one Wadethj the third person singular 
of Paban, To Wade ; is used commonly in Lincolnshire and 
in the North, for a Ford. 

Garth — i. e. Girdeth ; is commonly used in the same coun- 
ties for a yard. 



From the Hebrew also he is willing to derive Tellus. But both erd 
and Tellus are of Northern origin, and mean — 

Erd— That which is Br-ed. \ Gri-ian. 

(^ Ar-are. 

Tell-m—Th^i which is Till-ed \ J'^'^"* 

( Tol-ere. 

And it is a most eiToneous practice of the Latin etymologists to fly to 
the Hebrew for whatever they cannot find in the Greek : for tlie Romans 
were not a -mixed colony of Greeks and Jews ; but of Greeks and Goths. 
As the whole of the Latin language most plainly evinces. 

^ [Booth — i. e. That which one Bougheth or maketh with Boughs. 

See the bad derivations of booth by Junius, Skinner, and S. Johnson. 
But it is tolerably well described by Johnson : "A house built of boards 
or BougJis^ to be used for a short time." It is better described by 
Seneca : 

" Mihi crede, felix illud sseculura ante architectonus fuit. Furcse 
utrimque suspensee fulciebant casam : spissatis ramalibus^ ac fronde con- 
gesta et in proclive disposita, decursus irnbribus quamvis magnis erat. 
Sub his tectis habitavere securi." — Seneca, Epist. xc. 4ta edit. Lipsii, 
p. 575.] 



620 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 



Fifth 
Sixth 
Ninth 
Tenth 
&c. 
Twenty, &c 
Length 
Breadth 



In the same manner are formed the names of our 
ordinal numbers^ Fifth, Siocth, Ninth, Tenth, 
' Twentieth, &c. i. e. That unit which Fiv-eth, Six- 
eth, Nin-eth, Ten-eth, Twenty-eth, &c. or, which 
maketh up the number Five, Six, Nine, Ten, 



In the same manner are formed our words 

of admeasurement, Length, Breadth, Width, 

Width ^ Depth, Heigth, Which are respectively the 

Depth | third persons singular, Lance's, Bpsebe'S, 

Heigth J pabe'S, Dippe'S, J^eapcS, of the indicatives of 

Lenjian, extendere ; Bpseban, dilatare ; paban, procedere ; 

Dippan, submergere; J^sepan, extollere. 

F, — It has been remarked indeed that Milton always wrote 
Heigth, as our antient authors also did ; but the word is now 
commonly written and spoken Height ; which seems to oppose 
your etymology, 

H. — That circumstance does not disturb me in the least : 
for the same thing has happened to many other words. But 
this interferes not at all with their meaning nor with their deri- 
vation ; though it makes them not quite so easily discoverable. 

So it has happened to 

Might; which the Anglo-Saxons wrote C08e5e"S or OOaej^e, 
i. e. What one mayeth — Quantum potest aut valet aliquis. 
Might is the third person singular of the indicative of OOajan, 
posse, valere. 

" Meath, vox agro Line, usitatissima, ut ubi dicimus, I give 
thee the meath of the buying, i. e. tibi optionem et plenariam 
potestatem pretii seu emptionis facio.^^ — Skinner. 

Light: which the Anglo-Saxons wrote LeohccS, Leoh'S, 
and Leohc, i. e. quod illuminat. It is the third person of the 
indicative of Leohtan, illuminare. 

Sight : which the Anglo-Saxons wrote Sx^ and 8i"Se, i. e. 
that faculty which seeth. The third person singular of the 
indicative of 8eon, videre. 

This change of e for i is nothing extraordinary : for, as they 
wrote pie's or pi^ for Seeth ; so they wrote jie for See, and 
fiene for Seen. And Gower and Chaucer wrote sigh for saw. 



CH. v.] OF ABSTRACTION. 621 

*' And tho me thought that I sighe 

A great stone from an hille on highe 

Fell downe of sodeine auenture." — Gowe?\ Prol. fol. 4. p. 2. col. 1, 
'* He tometh him all sodenly 

And sawe a ladie laie him by 

Of eightene wynter age, 

Whiche was the fairest of visage 

That euer in all this worlde he sighe.'* 

Ibid. lib. 1. fol. 17. p. 2. col. 2. 
** Ful fayre was Myrthe, ful longe and high 

A fayrer man I neuer sygh." 

Eom. of the Hose, fol. 123. p. 2. col. 2. 

Weight — A.-S. pseje'S. The third person singular of the 
indicative of p 8ean_, To Weigh. — The weight of any thing, is — 
That which it fVeigheth. 

Wright : i. e. One that Worketh. The third person of the 
indicative of pyjican, operari. As Shipwright, Cartwright, 
Wainwrightf Wheelwright: One that worketh at Ships, Carts, 
Waggons, Wheels. 

[" Se selmihtija Scippenb ge j^purelobe hme j-ylpne fujih fa 
micclan peojrc jje he ge pOEj^TG set: pjiuman." 

" The almighty Shaper manifested himself through the great work that 
he wrought at the beginning." — JEt/ric. de Veteri Testamento, p. 2. 

"Foja^am fe hi-c yy j-pi=Se poke -jJ jja gePORJpTAN geSEGAFTA 
Jam ne beon jehijij^ume fe hi jeSEeOP anb jepOEj^TG. Nsej* 
feoj' pojiulb se-c p|iuman, ac hije pOR))Te Gob f ilp." 

" For very disorderly it were that thing created should be disobedient 
unto the Creator thereof. This world was not at first, but God himself 
made it." — Ibid!] 

R and h, the canine and the aspirate, are the two letters of 
the alphabet more subject to transposition than any other. So 
WORK — aliquid operatum — which we retain as our substantive, 
is the regular past tense of pypcan ; which, by the addition 
of the participial termination ed, became worked, work'd, 
woRKT. This our ancestors, by substituting h for k or c, 
wrote Popht, and by transposition P poht ; which we now write 
wrought, and retain both as past tense and past participle of 
Pypcan, To Work. 

For PipceS, our ancestors wrote pypht; and, by a trans- 



622 OF ABSTRACTION. [PART II. 

position similar to the foregoing, pjiyht ; wliicli with us becomes 

WRIGHT. 

These words, and such as these, are not difficult to discover. 
Because the terminating ht_, instead of th, leads to suspicion 
and detection. But there are many others, such as blow, 
HARM, ale, knave, room,^ &c. which are not so readily sus- 
pected as those I have before mentioned : because, in our 
modern English, we have totally cast off all the letters of the 
discriminating termination of the third person singular of the 
indicative of those verbs. 

Sir Walter Raleigh, in his History of the Worldj instead of 
BLOW, uses BLOWTH (the third person singular of the indicative 
of Blopan, florere) as the common expression of his day. 

** This first age after the flood was, by ancient historians, called 
Golden. Ambition and covetousness being as then but green and newly 
grown up ; the seeds and effects whereof were as yet but potential, and 
in the blowth and bud." 

Part 1. book 1. ch. 9. sect. 3. p. 107. edit. 1677. 



^ RooMTU (in the Anglo-Saxon Eym^e), the third person singular of 
Ryman, is the favourite term of Drayton. 

" When wrathful heauen the clouds so lib'rally bestow'd 
The seas (then wanting roomth to lay their boist'rous load) 
Upon the Belgian marsh their pamper'd stomachs cast." 

" Foly-olbioHy song 5. 

" But EydoU, young'st and least, and for the others pride 
Not finding fitting roomth upon the rising side, 
Alone unto the West directly takes her way." Ibid, song 6. 

" Whose most renowned acts shall sounded be as long 
As Britain's name is known ; which spred themselves so wide 
As scarcely hath for fame left any roomth beside." Ibid, song 8. 

" Nor let the spacious mound of that great Mercian king 
(Into a lesser roomth thy burliness to bring) 
Include thee." Ibid, song 8. 

" Kanutus, yet that hopes to win what he did lose. 
Provokes him still to fight : and falling back where they 
Might field- roomth find at large their ensigns to display. 
Together flew again." Ibid, song 12. 

" Besides I dare thus boast, that I as fiir am known 
As any of them all, the South their names doth sound ; 
The spacious North doth me : that there is scarcely found 
A roomth for any else, it is so fiU'd with mine." Ibid, song 26. 



CH. v.] OF ABSTRACTION. 623 

" This princess having beheld the child ; his form and beauty, though 
but yet in the blowth, so pierced her compassion, as she did not only 
preserve it, and cause it to be fostered ; but commanded that it should 
be esteemed as her own." — Part 1. book 2. ch. 3. sect. 3. p. 148. 

Harm. Our modern word harm was in the Anglo-Saxon 
Yjim^ or Iep.m^, i. e. Whatsoever Harmeth or Hurteth : the 
third person singular of the indicative of yjiman^ or lejiman, 
Isedere. 

[")?i alifbe op heoria YEC0D8." — JElfric. de Veteri Testamento, 
p. 12. See above, in p. 337.] 

Ale, was in the Anglo-Saxon ^lo'S, i. e. Quod accendit, 
inflammat : the third person singular of the indicative of ^lan, 
accendere, inflammare. 

Skinner was aware of the meaning of this word_, though he 
knew not how it was derived. He says of ale — " Posset et 
non absurde deduci ab A.-S. ^lan, accendere, inflammare: 
Quia sc. ubi generosior est (qualis majoribus nostris in usu fuit) 
spiritus et sanguinem copioso semper, ssepe nimio, calore 
perfundit.'^ 

[Crew ") Ire-paep, Ire-jasepub. — Rsepub, Rout. Dutch, Rot 

Crowd J and Rotting. A.-S. Ejieab and Dpu^. Dejisepub 
pse^a. — 72. 7. Cot. 13. " Mixta, sive undique coUecta, acies.^' 
—Lye. 

" They saw before them, far as they could vew, 
Full many people gathered in a crew." 

Faerie Queene, book 5. cant. 2. st. 2-9.] 

Knave (A.-S. Enapa) was probably Napa^S, i. e. Nehapa'S, 
Denapa^ ; qui nihil habet : the third person singular of Nabban, 
i. e. Ne-haban. So Irensep, Irensepb, Nsepij, Nsepja, are in the 
Anglo-Saxon, mendicus, egens. In the same manner Nequam 
is held by the Latin etymologists to mean Ne-quicquam, i. e. 
One who hath nothing ; neither goods nor good qualities. For 
— " Nequam scrvum, non malum, sed inutilem significat." Or, 
according to Festus — " Qui nc tanti quidem est, quam quod 
habetur minimi.^' 

Of the same sort the Anglo-Saxons had likewise many other 
abstract terms (as they are called) from others of their verbs : 
of which we have not in our modern language any trace left. 



624 OF ADJECTIVES. [PART TI. 

Sucli as Ti]\f^j the third person singular of the indicative of 
E-jieCan: Duju'S^ the third person singular of the indicative 
of Dujan, &c. 

Chaucer indeed has used gryth, 

" Christ said : Qui gladio percutit, 
Wyth swerde shall dye. 
He bad his priestes peace and geyth." 

Ploughnans Tale^ fol. 94. p. 1. col. 2. 

And from Duju'S we have Doughty still remaining in the 
language.^ 

But I think I need proceed no further in this course : and 
that I have already said enough,, perhaps too much^ to shew 
what sort of operation that is^ which has been termed Abs- 
traction. 



CHAPTER VI. 

OF ADJECTIVES. 



F.- — You imagine then that you have thus set aside the doc- 
trine of Abstraction. 

Will it be unreasonable to ask you, What are these Adjec- 
tives and Participles by which you think you have atchieved 
this feat ? And first. What is an Adjective ? I dare not call 



^ [):)yn^, nocumentum, laesio, oppression ; third person singular of 
]3ynan, opprimere. 

))u^e, past participle of j^y^ian. 

"Se Chalbea cininc com j^a to hij' ea;ibe mib jjsejie ))UD6 anb 
Jjsejie hejie lape." — JElfric. de Veterl Testamento, p. 16.] 

[To these may also be added, Fixo^ and pixno^e, jpunta^ and 
huntno^e, paeptne^, hseptno^e, iJe^iga^, Ijja^, Geoju^. 

" Ic piUe gan on jzixo^." " I will go a-fishing." — John, xxi. 3. 

" On hseptne^e pa^j^." " Was in custody." — Cliron. Saar. 1101. 

" Utapajien on hejija^." " Gone out a-plundering." — Id. an. 894. 

The reader is referred to Grimm's account of derivations in th; 
Gramviat, vol. ii. p, 245, &c. — Ed.] 



CH. VI.] OF ADJECTIVES. 625 

it Noun Adjective : for Dr. Lowth tells us, p. 41^ " Adjectives 
are very improperly called Nouns, for they are not the names 
of things.^' 

And Mr. Harris [Hermes, book 1. ch. 10.) says — ^^Gram- 
marians have been led into that strange absurdity of ranging 
Adjectives with Nouns^ and separating them from Verbs ; 
though they are homogeneous with respect to Verbs^ as both 
sorts denote Attributes : they are heterogeneous with respect 
to Nouns^ as never properly denoting Substances." 

You see, Harris and Lowth concur^ that Adjectives are not 
the names of things; that they never properly denote sub- 
stances. But they differ in their consequent arrangement. 
Lowth appoints the Adjective to a separate station by itself 
amongst the parts of speech ; and yet expels the Participle 
from amongst them, though it had long figured there : whilst 
Harris classes Verbs, Participles, and Adjectives together under 
one head, viz. Attributives} 

H, — These gentlemen differ widely from some of their ablest 
predecessors. Scaliger, Wilkins, Wallis, Sanctius, Scioppius, 
and Vossius, considerable and justly respected names, tell us 
far otherwise. 

Scaliger, lib. 4. cap. 91. ^^ Nihil differt concretum ab 
abstracto, nisi modo significationis, non significatione." 

Wilkins, Part 1. ch. 3. sect. 8. ^^The true genuine sense 
of a Noun Adjective will be fixed to consist in this; that it 
imports this general notion, oi pertaining to." 

Wallis, p. 92. " Adjectivum respectivum est nihil aliud 
quam ipsa vox substantiva, adjective posita.^^ 

Pag. 127. " Quodlibet substantivum adjective positura 
degenerat in adjectivum." 



^ Harris should have called them either Attributes or Attributahles. 
But having terminated tlie names of his three other classes {Substantive, 
Bejinitive, Connective^ in Ive, he judged it more regular to terminate tlie 
title of this class also in Ive .- having no notion Avhatever that all com- 
w.on terminations have a meaning ; and probably supposing them to be 
(as the etymologists ignorantly term them) mere protractiones vocum : 
as if words were wiredrmcn, and that it was a mere matter of Taste in 
the writer, to use indifferently either one termination or another at his 
pleasure. 

2 s 



626 OF ADJECTIVES. [PART II. 

Pag. 129. *^^Ex substantivis fiunt Adjectiva copise, addita 
terminatione y, &c. 

Sanctius^ 

F. — I beg you to proceed no furtber with your authorities. 
Can you suppose that Harris and Lowth were unacquainted 
with them ; or that they had not read much more than all 
which you can produce upon the subject^ or probably have ever 
seen ? 

H. — I doubt it not in the least. But the health of the mind, 
as of the body^ depends more upon the digestion tlian the 
swallow. Away then with authorities : and let us consider 
their reasons. They have given us but one; and that one, 
depending merely upon their own unfounded assertion, viz. That 
Adjectives are not the names of things. Let us try that. 

! I think you will not deny that Gold and Brass and SillCj is 
j each of them the name of a thing, and denotes a substance, 
\ If then I say — a Gold-ving, a i^ra^^-tube, a Silk-strmg : Here 
\ are the Substantives adjective posita, yet names of things, and 
\ denoting substantives. 

If again I say — a Golden ring, a Brazen tube, a Silken 
string; do Gold and Brass and Silk, cease to be the names 
of things, and cease to denote substantives ; because, instead of 
coupling them with ring, tube and string by a hyphen thus - , 
I couple them to the same words by adding the termination en 
to each of them ? Do not the Adjectives (which I have made 
. such by the added termination) Golden, Brazen, Silken, (ut- 
tered by themselves) convey to the hearer^s mind and denote 
the same things as Gold, Brass, and Silk? Surely the ter- 
mination en takes nothing away from the substantives Gold, 
Brass, and Silk, to which it is united as a termination ; and as 
surely it adds nothing to their signification, but this single 
circumstance, viz. that Gold, Brass and Silk, are designated, 
by this termination en, to be joined to some other substantive. 
And we shall find hereafter that en and the equivalent adjec- 
tive terminations ed and ig (our modern y) convey all three, 
by their own intrinsic^ meaning, that designation and nothing 
else ; for they mean Give, Add, Join. And this single added 
circumstance of "pertaining to,^^ is (as Wilkins truly tells us) 



CH. VI.] OF ADJECTIVES. 627 

the only difference between a substantive and an adjective; 
between Gold and Golden, &c. 

So tbe Adjectives Wooden and Woolen convey precisely 
the same ideas^ are tbe names of the same tliings_, denote the 
same substances ; as the substantives Wood and Wool : and the 
terminating en only puts them in a condition to be joined to 
some other substantives; or rather, give us notice to expect 
some other substantives to which they are to be joined. And 
this is the whole mystery of simple Adjectives. (We speak not 
here of compounds, ful, ous, ly, &c.) 

An Adjective is the name of a thing which is directed to be 
joined to some other name of a thing. And the substantive 
and adjective so joined, are frequently convertible, without 
the smallest change of meaning : as we may say — a perverse 
nature, or, a natural perversity. 

F. — Mr. Harris is short enough upon this subject; but you 
are shorter. He declares it " no way difficult '^ to understand 
the nature of a Participle : and " easy '' to understand the nature 
of an Adjective. But to get at them you must, according to 
him, travel to them through the Verb. 

He says, (p. 184.) — ^" The nature of Verbs being understood, 
that of Participles is no way difficult. Every complete Verb is 
expressive of an Attribute; of Time; and of an Assertion. 
Now if we take away the Assertion, and thus destroy the Verb, 
there will remain the Attribute, and the Time, which make the 
essence of the Participle. Thus take away the Assertion from 
the Verb Fpacpet, Writeth, and there remains the Participle 
Tpa<f>wv, Writing; which (without the Assertion) denotes the 
same Attribute, and the same Time.'' 

Again, (p. 186.) — '^'The nature of Verbs and Participles being 
understood, that of Adjectives becomes easy. A Verb implies 
both an Attribute, and Time, and an Assertion. A Participle 
implies only an Attribute and Time. And an Adjective only 
implies an Attribute.'^ 

H. — Harris's method of understanding easily the nature of 
Participles and Adjectives, resembles very much that of the 
Wag who undertook to teach the sons of Crispin how to make 
a shoe and a slipper easily in a minute. But he was more 
successful than Harris : for he had something to cut away, the 

2 s 2 



628 OF ADJECTIVES^ [PART II. 

boot. Whereas Harris has absolutely nothing to be so served. 
For the Verb does not denote any Time; nor does it imply 
any Assertion. No single word can. Till one single thing can 
be found to be a couple, one single word cannot make an Ad- 
sertion or an Ad-firmation : for there is joining in that opera- 
tion ; and there can be no junction of one thing. 

F. — Is not the Latin Ibo an assertion ? 

H. — Yes indeed is it, and in three letters. But those three 
letters contain three words ; two Verbs and a Pronoun. 

All those common terminations, in any language, of which 
all Nouns or Verbs in that language equally partake (under the 
notion of declension or conjugation) are themselves separate words 
with distinct meanings : which are therefore added to the differ- 
ent nouns or verbs^ because those additional meanings are in- 
tended to be added occasionally to all those nouns or verbs. 
These terminations are all explicable, and ought all to be 
explained ; or there will be no end of such fantastical writers as 
this Mr. Harris, who takes fustian for philosophy. 

In the Greek verb I-evau (from the antient E(o or the 
modern EifjuL :) in the Latin verb I-re ; and in tlie English 
verb TO'Hie, or to Hi, (A.-S. J^ijan;) the Infinitive termina- 
tions evat and re make no more part of the Greek and Latin 
verbsj than the Infinitive prefix To makes a part of the English 
verb Hie or Hi. The pure and simple verbs, without any 
suffix or prefix, are in the Greek I (or Ei) in the Latin I ; and 
in the English Hie or Hi. These verbs, you see, are the same, 
with the same meaning, in the three languages ; and differ only 
by our aspirate. 

In the Greek j3ov\-ofiaL or (as antiently) jBovX-ew or ^ovXco, 
^ovX only is the verb ; and ofj.ac, or eco, is a common remove- 
able suffix, with a separate meaning of its own. So in the 
Latin Vol-o, Vol is the verb ; and o a common removcable 
suffix, with a separate meaning. And the meaning of Eco in 
the one, and O in the other, I take to be Eryco, Ego : for I per- 
fectly concur with Dr. Gregory Sharpe, and others, that the 
personal pronouns are contained in the Greek and Latin ter- 
minations of the three persons of their verbs. Our old English 
Ich or Tg (which we now pronounce I) is not far removed from 
Ego. 



CH. VI.] OF ADJECTIVES.. 629 

Where we now use Will, our old Englisli verb was TVol ; 
which is the pure verb without prefix or suffix. 

Thus then will this Assertion Ibo stand in the three lan- 
guages ; inverting only our common order of speech^ — Ich Wol 
Hie or Hij to suit that of the Greek and Latin; 
English , . , Hi Wol Ich 
Latin , . . , 1 Vol O 
Greek .... I Bov\ ew. 

They who have noticed that where we employ a w^ the Latin 
employs a v; and where the Latin employs a v, the Greek 
uses a ^ (as Aa^tS, BeaTrecnavo^, &c.) ; will see at once^ that 
Wolf Vol, Boul, are one and the same word. And the progress 
to Ibo is not very circuitous nor unnatural. It is Iboul, Ibou, 
Ibo. The termination Bo (for BovXeco) may therefore well be 
applied to denote the future time of the Latin verbs; since its 
meaning is / Woll (or Will). So it is_, Amaboul, Amabou, 
Amabo, &c.^ 

But let us, if you please,, confine ourselves at present to Mr. 
Harris. He says — " Take away the Assertion from the verb 



^ When Varchi undertook to shew that the Italian language had more 
Tenses than the Greek or Latin ; Castelvetro objected that the Itahan had 
no Futu7'e Tense, as the Latin had. — "Conciossiacosache la lingua nostra 
manchi d' un Tempo principale, cio e del futuro, nol potendo significare con 
una voce simplice : mn convenendo che lo significhi con una composta ; cio e 
con lo 'nfinito del verbo e col presente del verbo Ho : come Amare Ho, 
Amare Hai, Amare Ha,"' &c. 

Castelvetro accounts very properly for the Italian future Tense 
Amero, Amerai, Amera, (and so he might for Saro, &c. i. e. Essere ho, 
&c.) But it seems to me extraordinary that he should have supposed 
it possible that the Latin, or any other language, could, by the simple 
verb alone, signify the additional circumstances of Manner, Time, &c., 
without additional sounds or words to signify the added circumstances : 
and that he should imagine that the distinguishing terminations in any 
language were not also added words ; but that they sprouted out from 
the verb as from their parent stock. If it were so, how would he account 
for the very different fruit borne by the same plant, in the same soil, at 
different times ? Antiently the Ptomans said Audi-bo : then Audi-am : 
now Udir-o, i. e. 

x\udi(re) Volo .... I will to h.^ar. 
Audi(re) Amo .... I desire to hear. 
'Udir(e) Ho I have to hear. 



630 OF ADJECTIVES. [PART II. 

rpa(p6c, Writethj and there remains the Participle Tpa(f)a)v^ 
Writing J^ — This is too clumsy to deserve the name of leger- 
demain. Take away et and eth from Tpa^ei and Writeih^ 
and there remain only Tpa(f> and Writ, which are indeed the 
pure verbs : and a man must be perfectly blind not to see 
that they are all which remain, until Harris whips in the other 
terminations wv and ing. But let us wilfully shut our eyes_, 
and pass over this clumsy trick of his : how will he now 
destroy the Farticiple, as he before destroyed the Verb ; and 
so get on to his Adjective ? He cannot. He does not even 
attempt it. Nor can he ever arrive at an Adjective through a 
Verb. 

In Tpa(f> and Writ there is neither Assertion nor Time, 
And if there had been, as Harris supposed, an Assertion im- 
plied by those words ; it must, by his own doctrine, have been 
implied by the terminations eu and eth : for by removing ec and 
eth J he says, he takes away the Assertion and thereby destroys 
the Verb. 

Again, If in Tpa<poyv and Writing there had been any deno- 
tation of Time ; it must have been iiji the terminations (dv and 
ing. By the taking away of which terminations, he would, if 
he could (by following his former process), have destroyed the 
Participle and arrived at an Adjective, without any denotation 
of Time. But here his process failed him: and he has given 
us no Adjective, by destroying the Participles Fpacpcov and 
Writing. 

F. — Though there can be no Assertion without a verb; I 
am not, with Mr. Harris, ready to contend that there can be 
an Assertion by the Verb alone. But I have always hitherto 
believed, and still continue to believe, that Time is denoted both 
by Verbs and Participles. 

H. — If you are satisfied concerning the Adjective, I will 
willingly proceed with you to an examination of the latter point. 
If not, continue in your present belief; that we may not 
confound our subjects. 

F. — You have always expressed a high opinion of Richard 
Johnson ; and, in what you condemn, Lowth has only followed 
his directions. 

R. Johnson says — " It had been better in the enumeration 



CH. VI.] OF ADJECTIVES. 631 

of the Parts of Speech^ to have made the Substantive and the 
Adjective two distinct parts of speech; and to have compre- 
hended the Participle under the Adjective. For the Substan- 
tive and the Adjective are two very different parts of speech.''^ 
And again, — " The question is, whether the Adjective be a 
NouUi or Name of a thing ; that is, whether it be equally so 
with the Substantive. Now I suppose nobody will say the 
Adjective is equally, or as much the Name of a thing, as the 
Substantive. The Substantive represents All that is essential 
to the nature of the thing : as Homo, or Man, represents 
Animal rationale, or A rational living creature. But Bonus, 
Good, represents only an accidental quality ; which, though 
morally necessary is not naturally so, but merely accidenlal. 
So that though a Man may be called Good, and therefore 
Good, in some sense, may be said to be his name ; yet it is 
not equally or as much his name, as Man. This last repre- 
senting all that is essential to his nature ; the other only what 
is accidental'' 

Ben Jonson, whom you likewise esteem, followed the opinion 
of Frischlinus ; that the distinction between substantive and 
adjective arises from the latter' s being common to three 
genders. — " For a substantive is a Noun of one only gender, 
or (at the most) of two. And an Adjective is a Noun of three 
genders, being always infinite." 

And some Grammarians have said that an Adjective only 
connotes, and means nothing by itself. 

"Nel modo die VAccidente s'appoggia alia Sustanza, 
VAggiuntivo s'appoggia al Sustantivo.'' — " E come VAcci- 
dente non pub star senza la Sustanza, cosi (gli Aggiuntivi) non 
possono star nell' orazione senza un Sustantivo : e standovi, 
non vi starebbon a proposito ; perche non significherebbon 
Niente." — Buonmattei. 

H. — The opinion of Frischlinus is sufficiently confuted by 
Vossius.^ And, notwithstanding R. Johnson's confident asser- 
tion that nobody would say so, I maintain that the Adjective is 
equally and altogether as much the Name of a TJdng, as the 
Noun substantive. And so say I of all words whatever. For 



^ De Analogia, lib. 1. cap. 6. 



632 OF ADJECTIVES. [PART II. 

that is not a word which is not the name of a thing. Every 
Avord, being a sound significant, must be a sign ; and_, if a sign, 
the Name, of a Thing. But a Noun substantive is the Name 
of a thing — and nothing more. And indeed so says Vossius — 
" Nee rectius Substantivum definitur — Quod aliquid per se sig- 
nificat. — Nam omnis vox ea^ instituto significans, aliquid significat 
per seJ^ — De Analog, lib. 1. cap. 6. 

I mean not to withdraw any portion of the respect which I 
have always declared for E. Johnson, B. Jonson, or Buonmattei. 
But it does not follow that I should be compelled jurare in 
verba upon every thing they have advanced. They were Gram- 
marians, not Philosophers. Were I to compose in Latin, I 
certainly should not venture to use an uncommon supine or a 
compared participial, without first consulting B. Johnson : but 
for the philosophy of language I cannot consider him as an 
authority. How strangely does he here impose upon himself 
with his example of Good Man : concluding, because Good does 
not signify the same thing which Man signifies, that therefore 
Good signifies nothing, i. e. is not the name of any thing. 
So, if he had reversed his instance and chosen this — Human 
Goodness : — He must, by the same kind of reasoning, have con- 
cluded that Goodness was, but that Human was not the Name 
of a thing. Still more absurd will this appear, if, instead of 
Human, we employ Wallis's Adjective and say — Man^s Good- 
ness : for then (if Wallis is right in regard to the genitive) 
this reasoning will prove that — Man's — is not the name of a 
thing. 

But, to return to R. Johnson's instance of Good Man. 

^' The substantive Man (he says) represents all that is es- 
sential to the nature of the thing; but the adjective Good 
represents ovlIj an Accidental quality." Which, when well 
considered, amounts to no more than this : That the substan- 
tive Man represents all that is signified by the term Man ; but 
that the adjective Good does not represent any idea that is 
signified by the term Man. And this is very true. But 
whoever will reflect a moment, will see that each of these 
words, both Good and Man, represents equally all that is es- 
sential to the nature of the thing of which Good and Man is 
respectively the sign. Good indeed does not represent (i. e. 



CH. VI.] OF ADJECTIVES. 633 

is not the sign of) any idea signified by the term Man, nor was 
it intended : any more than the term Man represents (i. e. is 
the sign of) any idea signified by the term Good. But Good 
represents all the ideas signified by the term Goodness, And 
all the difference between a substantive (as Goodness) and its 
corresponding adjective (Good) is ; that_, by some small diff'er- 
ence of termination, we are enabled when we employ the sign 
of an idea, to communicate at the same time to the hearer, 
that such sign is then meant to be added to another sign in 
such a manner as that the two signs together may answer the 
purpose of one complex term. This contrivance is merely an 
Abbreviation in the soi^ts of words to supply the want of an 
Abbreviation in Terms. For instance — A Holy Man. Here 
is a diff*erence of termination in one sign — Holiness — to shew -us 
that it is to be joined to another sign — Man : and that these 
two together are to serve the purpose of one complex term. In 
this last instance, our language enables us to exchange them 
both for one complex term, (which we cannot do with Good 
Man) and, instead of a Holy Man, to say a Saint. 

In some cases our language is so deficient as not to enable 
us to use either of these methods, when we want to express a 
certain collection of ideas together ; and we then have recourse 
sometimes to Prepositions, and sometimes to another expedient : 
If we speak, we do it by joining the terms close in pronuncia- 
tion : if we write, we do it by using a mark of junction, thus - . 
Which mark is not a word nor a letter, because it is not the 
sign of a sound ; but is itself, what a word should be, the imme- 
diate sign of an idea ; with this diff'erence, that it is conveyed to 
the eye only, not to the ear. Thus Sea-weed, Ivory-wand, 
Shell-fish, River- god, Weather-board, Hail-storm, Country-house, 
Family -quarrel, &c. 

For these collections of ideas our language does not furnish 
us either with a complex term, or with any change of termina- 
tion to Sea, Ivory, Shell, River, Weather, Hail, Country, Family, 
&c. by which to communicate to the hearer our intention of 
joining those terms to some other term. 

That an Adjective therefore cannot (as the Grammarians 
express it) " stand by itself, but must be joined to some other 
noun ; " does not proceed from any difference in the nature of 



634 OP ADJECTIVES. [PART II. 

the idea or of tlie thing of which the Adjective is the sign : 
but from hence, that having added to the sign of an idea that 
change of termination which_, by agreement or common ac- 
ceptance_, signifies that it is to be joined to some other sign, 
the hearer or reader expects that other sign which the adjective 
termination announces. For the adjective termination of the 
sigh sufficiently informs him, that the sign, when thus adjec- 
tived J is, not to be used by itself or to stand alone; but is to be 
joined to some other term.^ 

Yet we very well know by the Adjective alone, as well as by 
the Substantive alone, of what idea or collection of ideas the 
term mentioned (whether Adjective or Substantive) is the sign : 
though we do not know, till it is mentioned, to what other sign 
the Adjective sign is to be added. 

It is therefore well called Noun Adjective : for it is the Name 
of a thing, which may coalesce with another Name of a thing. 

But if indeed it were true that Adjectives were not the names 
of things ; there could be no Attribution by Adjectives : for you 
cannot attribute Nothing. How much more comprehensive 
would any term be by the attribution to it of Nothing 7 Adjec- 
tives, therefore, as well as Substantives, must equally denote 
Substances : and Substance is attributed to Substance by the 
adjective contrivance of language. 

F. — Not so. You forget the distinction which Scaliger makes 
between Substance and Essence. 

" Substantias appellatione abusi sunt pro Essentia : sicuti 
Grseci nomine ovaia^, in prsedicamento. Namque ovaia etiam 



^ Though most languages are contented to give a distinguishing termi- 
nation only to the added sign ; in the Persian language the sign which is 
to receive the addition of another sign to it, has a distinguishing termina- 
tion to inform the reader when it is to receive an addition. So that in 
the Persian language there are Substantives which cannot sta7id alone, 
but must be joined to some other word in the same sentence. But I 
hope it is not necessary to travel so far as to Persia, to convince our 
grammarians of the impropriety of making its inability to stand alone in 
a sentence, the distinguishing mark of an Adjective ; if they will be 
pleased only to recollect, that no Substantive, in any of its oblique cases, 
can stand alone any more than the Adjective. And this latter circum- 
stance might perhaps incline VVallis to call our Genitive, an Adjective ; 
for Man's cannot stand alone, any more than Ilumau. 



CH. VI.] OF ADJECTIVES. 635 

convenit rebus extra prsedicamenta_, nt Deo. At Substantia 
neque extra prsedicamenta^ neque in omnibus ; sed in iis tantum 
quae substant AccidentibusJ' . 

It is not therefore necessary that Adjectives should denote 
Substances, or else that there would be nothing attributed by 
their means. 

H. — Well. I care not whether you call it Substance or 
Essence or Accident^ that is attributed. Something must be 
attributed, and therefore denoted by every Adjective. And 
Essence, Substance, and Accident, are all likewise denoted by 
Substantives — by grammatical substantives at least. For, pray, 
what is Scaliger^s own consequence from the words you have 
quoted? — That Whiteness is not a Substantive, but Nomen 
essentiale. By which reasoning, you see, the far greater part 
of grammatical substantives are at once discarded, and become 
Accidentalia, or philosophical Adjectives. But that is not all 
the mischief : for the same kind of reasoning will likewise make 
a great number of the most common grammatical Adjectives 
become philosophical Substantives, as denoting Substances. 
For both Substances and Essences (if you chuse to have those 
terms, those ignes fatuos) are equally and indifferently denoted 
sometimes by grammatical substantives and sometimes by 
grammatical adjectives. 

And this difficulty has at all times puzzled all the gramma- 
rians who have attempted to account for the parts of speech 
by the single difference of the Things or Ideas of which the 
different sorts of words were supposed to be the signs. And 
though every one who has made the attempt, has found it mis- 
carry in his hands ; still each has pursued the beaten track, and 
employed his time and pains to establish a criterion which, in 
the conclusion, each has uniformly abandoned. And they all 
come at last to such paltry jargon as this of the authors of the 
Encyclopedic — " Ce sont des Noms substantifs par Imitation.'^ 
They must equally be obliged to acknowledge that substantial 
Adjectives are also des Noms adjectifs par Imitation. Thus 
Essential terms are grammatical substantives only by imitation : 
and substantial terras are grammatical adjectives only by imi- 
tation : and unfortunately this docs not happen only now and 
then, like an exception to a general rule ; but this perplexing 



636 or ADJECTIVES. [part II. 

imitation is so universally practised, that there is not any 
Accident whatever which has not a grammatical substantive for 
its sign, when it is not attributed : nor . is there any Substance 
whatever which may not have a grammatical Adjective for its 
sign, when there is occasion to attribute it. They are there- 
fore forced to give up at last every philosophical difference 
between the parts of speech, which they had at first laid 
down as the cause of the distinction ; and are obliged to allow 
that the same words (without any alteration, in their meaning) 
are sometimes of one part of speech and sometimes of ano- 
ther. — " Ces mots sont pris tantot adjectivement, tantot 
substantivement. Cela depend de leur service. Qualifient-ils ? 
lis sont Adjectifs. Designent-ils des Individus ? lis sont done 
Substantifs.^' 

Cela depend de leur service! — Does it so? In the name 
of Common sense then and Common patience, why have you 
troubled us with a heap of stuff upon which it does not depend ? 
But however neither is this altogether true. Cela ne depend 
pas de leur service. The same word is not sometimes an 
Adjective and sometimes a Substantive. But it is true that 
some languages have such defects, that, for want of an adjec- 
tive distinction to some of their terms, they are forced to 
attribute the term itself without any adherent intimation of its 
attribution. Which defect (viz. the want of an adjective ter- 
mination) was, I suppose, originally the case with all terms in 
the rude state of ail languages : and this defect still continues 
most in the most imperfect and unimproved languages. The 
want of an adjective termination to the signs of ideas, is more 
easily borne in languages where the added sign is closely joined 
to the sign which it is intended to accompany. But, without 
an adjective termination, all transposition would be excluded : 
and therefore the transposed languages are never so deficient in 
this respect, as the others. In English, instead of adjectiving 
our own substantives, we have borrowed, in immense numbers, 
adjectived signs from other languages; without borrowing the 
unadjectived signs of those same ideas : because our authors 
frequently found they had occasion for the former, but not for 
the latter. And, not understanding the nature of language, or 
the nature of the very benefit they were receiving ; they did 
not, as they might and should have done, improve their own 



CH. VI.] 



OF ADJECTIVES. 



637 



language by the same contrivance within itself : but bor- 
rowed from other languages abbreviations ready made to their 
hands. 

Thus they have incorporated into the English_, — for 



The Substantives 

Child 
Boy 

Man 



Woman 



Mind 

Birth 

Life . 

Body 

Piesii 

Blood 

Skin 

Heart 

Marrow 

Womb 

Bowels 

Navel 

Lungs 

Side 

Head 

Elbow 
Nose 
Hair 
Eye . 

Sight 

Smell 

Eyebrow 

Tear 

Ear . 

Hearini 

Mouth 



The foreign Adjectives. 

. Infant, Infantine. 

. Puerile. 

C Yirile, Human, Mas- 

(_ online, Male. 

( Female, Eeminine, Ef- 

( feminate. 

/-Mental, Magnanimous, 

) Pusillanimous, Una- 

(^ nimous. 

. Natal, Native. 

( Vital, Vivacious, Vivid, 

(_ Amphibious. 

. Corporal, Corporeal. 

. Carnal, Carnivorous. 

. Sanguine, Sanguinary. 

. Cutaneous. 

. Cordial, Cardiac. 

. Medidlary. 

. Uterine. 

. Visceral. 

. Umbilical. 

. Pulmonary. 

. Lateral, Collateral. 

( Capital, Chief, Ce- 

i phalic. 

. Cubital. 

. Nasal. 

. Capillaiy. 

. Ocular. 

( Visual, Perspicuous, 

(_ Conspicuous, Optic. 

. Olfactory. 

. Supercilious. 

. Lachrymal. 

. Auricular. 

. Auditory. 

. Oral. 



Hand 



The Substantives, The foreign Adjectives. 

_, - ( Loquacious, Garrulous, 
Speech. I ^^^^^^^^^ 

Tooth . . Dental. 

Lip . . Labial. 

Throat . . Guttural, Jugular. 

Spittle . . Salival. 

Breast . . Pectoral. 

Bosom . . Gremial, Sinuous. 

Shoulder . Humeral. 

C ]\Ianual, Dexterous, 

\ Sinister, Sinistrous. 

Taste . . Insipid. 

Word . . Verbal, Verbose. 

Thought . Pensive. 

Finger . . Digital. 

Groin . . Inguinal. 

Thigh . . Femoral. 

Leg . . Crural, Isosceles. 

Foot . . Pedal. 

Death . . Mortal. 

Carcass . Cadaverous. 

Father . . Paternal. 

Mother . Maternal. 

Brother . Fraternal. 

Husband . Marital. 

Wife . . Uxorious. 

Whore . . Meretricious. 

Guardian . Tutelar, Tutelary. 

Eival . . Emulous. 

Foe . . Hostile, Inimical. 

King . . Regal, Royal. 

Folk . . Vulgar. 

Shepherd . Pastoral. 

( Sacerdotal, Presbyte- 

\ rian. 

Being . . Essential. 
Real. 



Priest 



Thing 



638 


OP ADJECTIVES. 


[PART II. 


The Substantives, The foreign Adjectives. 


The Substantives, The foreign Adjectivee. 


Kind . 


( General, Generic, Con- 
"l genial. 


Spring . 


. Vernal. 


Summer 


. Estival. 


Dog . 


. Canine. 


Beginning . Initial. 


Cat . . 


. Eeline. 


End . 


. Final, Infinite. 


Calf . 


. Vituline. 


House . 


. Domestic. 


Cow . 


. Vaccine. 


Kitchen 


. Culinary. 


Lion 


. Leonine. 


Eield . 


. Agrestic, Agrarian. 


Eagle . 


. Aquiline. 


Wall . 


. Mural. 


Horse . 


. Equestrian. 


Hinge . 


. Cardinal. 


Whale . 


. Cetaceous. 


Country 


. Rural, Rustic. 


Worm . 


. Vermicular. 


Town . 


. Oppidan. 


World . 


. Mundane. 


Grape . 


. Uveous. 


Earth . 


. Terrestrial. 


Glass . 


. Vitreous. 


Sea 


. Marine, Maritime. 


Seed . 


. Seminal. 


Water . 


. Aqueous, Aquatic. 


Root . 


. Radical. 


Ice . . 


. Glacial. 


Money . 


. Pecuniary. 


Eire 


. Igneous. 


^gg . 


. Oval. 


Wood . 


. Sylvan, Savage. 


Milk . 


. Lacteal. 


Heaven . 


. Celestial. 


Meal . 


. Farinaceous. 


Island . 


. Insular. 


SheU . 


. Testaceous. 


Shore . 


. Littoral. 


Ring . 


. Annular. 


Eoom . 


. Local. 


Ship . 


. Naval, Nautical. 


Boundary 


. Conterminous. 


Pitch . 


. Bituminous. 


Light . 
Ground 


. Lucid, Luminous. 
. Humble. 


Mixture 


C Miscellaneous, Promis- 
"l cuous. 


Way . 


C Devious, Obvious, Im- 
l pervious, Trivial. 


Elock . 


. Gregarious, Egregious. 


Health . 


( Salutary, Salubrious, 


Sun 


. Solar. 


i Insane. 


Moon . 


. Lunar, Sublunary. 


Disease 


. Morbid. 


Star 


. Astral, Sideral, Stellar. 


Hatred 


. Odious. 




r Annual, Perennial, 


Love . 


. Amorous, Amatory. 


Year 


} Biennial, Anniver- 


Fear . 


. Timorous, Timid. 




( sary. 


Treachery 


. Insidious. 


Time . 


C Temporal, Temporary, 
X Chronical. 


Belief . 


. Credulous. 


Will . 


' Voluntary, Spontane- 
1. ous. 




r Diurnal, Hodiernal, 


Day . 


< Meridian, Epheme- 


Sorrow 


. Trist. 




( ral. 


Grief . 


. Dolorous.- 


Sunday . 


. Dominical. 


Pride . 


r Superb, Haughty, Fas- 
X tuous. 


Holiday 


. Eestive, Festival. 


Night . 


. Nocturual,Equinoctial. 


Flattery 


. Adulatory. 


Week . 


. Hebdomadal. 


Faith . 


. Fiducial. 


Winter . 


. Brumal. 


Lust . 


. Libidinous. 



GH. VT.] 



OF ADJECTIVES. 



639 



The Substantives, ITie foreign Adjectives. 


The Subst 


antives, The foreign Adjectives. 


Disgrace 


. Ignominions. 


Leap 


. Desultory. 


Sleep . 
Keason . 
Eevenge 
Strength 


. Soporiferous. ■ 
. Eational. 
. Yindictive. 
. Eobust. 


Treaty 

Trifle 
Noise 
Eule 


. Federal. 
. Nugatoiy. 
. Obstreperous. 
. Eegular. 


Age . . 


. Primaeval. 


Point 


. Punctual. 


Want . 


. Indigent. 


Sale 


. . Venal. 


Blame . 
Plenty . 
Sweat . 


. Culpable. 
. Copious. 
. Sudorific. 


Wound . Vulnerary. 

,^ . C Coniugal, Nuptial, Con- 
Marriage [ ^^^^^^ 


Hurt . 


. Noxious. 


War 


. Martial, Military. 


Advice . 


. Monitory. 


West 


. Occidental. 


Law . . 


. Legal, Loyal. 


East 


. Oriental. 


Threat . 
Danger . 


. Minatory. 
. Perilous. 


Alone 
Two 


. Sole, Solitary. 
. Second. 


Theft . 


. Furtive. 


Vessel 


. Vascular. 


Thanks . 


. Gratuitous. 


Church 


. Ecclesiastical. 


Help . 
Gain 

Hire . 


. Auxiliary. 
. Lucrative. 

( Mercenary, Stipen- 

1 diary. 


Parish 
People 


. Parochial. 

r Popular, Populous, 
j Public, Epidemical, 
( Endemial. 


Burthen 
Tax . . 


. Onerous. 
. Piscal. 


Alms . 
&c. 


. Eleemosynary.^ 
&c.' 


Step . 


. Gradual. 







The adoption of such words as these,, was indeed a benefit 
and an improvement of our language ; which however would 
have been much better and more properly obtained by adjec- 
tiving our own words. For, as the matter now stands, when a 
poor foreigner has learned all the names of things in the En- 
glish tongue, he must go to other languages for a multitude 

^ With the Christian religiou were very early introduced to our an- 
cestors the Greek words, Church, Parish, Peojde, Alms: which they 
coiTupted and used as substantives, a long time before they wanted 
them in an adjectlved state. When the latter time arrived, they were 
incapable of adjectiving these words themselves, and were therefore 
forced to seek them in the original language. Hence the Adjectives 
are not so corrupt as the Substantives. And hence the strange appear- 
ance of Elfie)iiosynfmj, a word of seven syllables, as the Adjective of the 
monosyllable Alms ; which itself bf?came such by successive corruptions 
of EXerjiJioavvT], long before its Adjective was required : having success- 
ively exhibited itself as Almosine, Almosle, Alinose, Almes, and finally 
Ah lis : whilst in the French language it appeared as ^/?y/osi>it% Almosne^ 
AmnoHne. A nut one. 



640 OF ADJECTIVES. [PART II. 

of the adjectived names of the same things. And even an un- 
learned native can never understand the meaning of one quarter 
of that which is called his native tongue. 

F. — You have not all this while taken any notice of the 
account given of the Adjective by Messrs. de Port Royal. 
And I wonder at it the more ; because I know they have always 
been especial favourites of yours. 

H. — They likewise make Substance and Accident the foun- 
dation of the difference between Substantive and Adjective : 
and that_, I think, I have already suf&ciently confuted. 

F. — True. But they acknowledge that this distinction is 
not observed in languages at present. They only affirm that 
it was originally the cause of the difference.^ But they say, 
that, after this had been done by the first Framers of language, 
Men did not stop there, but proceeded further; and signified 
both Substance and Accident indifferently (as we see all lan- 
guages now do) either by Substantives or Adjectives; some- 
times by the one and sometimes by the other. 

H. — If this distinction between Substance and Accident 
does not cause the difference between our Substantives and 
Adjectives, why is it now proposed to us as such ? 

F. — Aye, But this was originally the cause. 

^.— Was it indeed? Pray, When? Where? In the re- 
mains of what rude language is any trace of this to be found ? 
I assert hardily, in none. I maintain that it was not originally, 

^ " Les objets de nos pensees sont oa les choses, ce qu'on appelle 
ordinairement Substance; ou la maniere des clioses, ce qu'on appelle 
Accident. Et il y a cette difference entre les clioses ou les Substances, 
et la maniere des clioses ou des Accidents; que Jes Substances subsistent 
par elles-memes, au lieu que les Accidents ne sont que par les Sub- 
stances. C'est ce qui a fait la principale difference entre les mots qui 
signifient les objets des pensees. Car ceux qui signifient les Substances 
ont cte appelles Noms Substantifs ; et ceux qui signifient les Accidents, 
en marquant le sujet auquel ces accidents conviennent, Noms Adjectifs. 
Voila la premiere Origine des noms Substantifs et Adjectifs. Mais on 
n'en est pas demeure la : et il se trouve qu'on ne s'est pas tant arrcte a 
la signification, qu'a la maniere de signifier. Car, parceque la Substance 
est ce qui subsiste par soi-mem6, on a appelle Noms Substantifs tons 
ceux qui subsistent par eux-memes dans le discours : encore mcme 
qu'ils signifient des Accidents. Et au contraire, on a appelle Adjectifs 
ceux-memes qui signifient des Substances, lorsque par leur maniere de 
signifier ils doivcnt etre joints a d'autres noms dans le discours." 



CH. VI.] OF ADJECTIVES. 641 

or at any time^ the cause of the difference between Substantive 
and Adjective in any language. But they say, men did not 
stop there ; but proceeded further. Proceeded ! To do what ? 
Whj, to do directly the contrary. Can this be called Pro- 
ceeding ? What a wretched abuse of words is this ; and what 
gross shifting ] in order to appear to give a solution of what 
they did not understand ! However, by this proceeding, you 
see we must abandon totally their first Criterion. For it now 
turns out, that Adjectives are indifierently the signs both of 
Substantives and Accidents : and Substantives are indifferently 
the signs both of Accidents and Substances. So that we are 
now just where we were, without any Criterion at all: for the 
progress has destroyed the Criterion. The original cause of 
the distinction and the progress of it, operate together like the 
signs plus and mmus, leaving nothing to our quotient of know- 
ledge. 

However, let that pass. It is only so much time thrown 
away in appearing learned. Come, Let us now, if you please, 
have some Criterion which they will stand by. Vv'hat now do 
they lay down as the real difference between an Adjective and a 
Substantive? 

F. — The real remaining difference, according to them, is, 
that a Substantive has but one signification : ^ it is the sign of 
that which it signifies, i. e. that which you understand by it ; 
and no more. But slr Adjective has two significations: It is 
not only the sign of that which you understand by it, and 
which they call its distinct signification ; but it is also the sign 
of something which you do not, and never can understand by 
it alone : and this last they call its confused signification. 

H. — Confused! You understand them, I suppose, to mean, 
like Mr. Harris, an obscure signification. 

F. — Yes, an obscure signification. But you must remember 
that, though this signification is confused, it is the most direct.^ 
And that tlie distinct siornification is the most indirect. 



^ " Ce qui fait qu'un Nora ne peut subsister par soi-meme, est, quand 
outre sa signification dlstlncte, il en a encore une confuse ; qu'on pout 
appeller Connotation. Cette connotation fait V Adjectif'' 

^ " II ne faut pas conclure que les Adjectifs signifient phis dlrecte- 
ment la forme que le siijet ; comme si la signification la plus dkilncte 

2 T 



64i2 OF ADJECTIVES. [pART IT. 

IT. — So then it appears at last, that the distinguishing Cri- 
terion of an Adjective is this obscure signification : for a clear, 
distinct signification the Adjective has in common with the Sub' 
stantive. — " Blanc signifie la Blanchettr d^une maniere aussi 
distincte que le mot meme de Blancheur/' 

Now is it necessary here, in order to shew the absurdity of 
this account, to repeat again that an obscure (i. e. an unknown 
signification) is not any signification? Besides, there is a 
gross mistake made between an adjected and an adjective word : 
that is, between a word laid close to another word, and a word 
which ma9/ lye close to another word. Let me ask you. How 
is it with any Adjective taken by itself? Till it is joined to 
some other word, can you possibly discover what you call its 
confused meaning? Blanc has its distinct meaning when men- 
tioned by itself; and it is then an Adjective. But what you 
call its cofi/used meaning can never appear till it is adjected: 
and is then shewn 07ily and altogether by the word to which it 
is adjected. For, if it were otherwise, it would follow, that the 
same word White must be, at the same time, the sign of Horse 
and House and Man, and every thing else to which the Adjec- 
tive White may at any time be added. And, what is still more, 
the Substantives themselves would at once be stripped of their 
rank and definition, of being the signs of ideas ; and would 
become the mere' lights to make visible the confused and obscure 
signification of the Adjectives. 

But surely I need say no more concerning the Adjective : or 
take up your time with combating its signification in recto and 
in obliquo. 

As little notice do the dull Modijicatives of Buffier^ deserve; 



etoit aussi la plus dlrecte. Car, au contraire, il est certain qu'ils sigiii- 
fient le sujet directement^ et corame parlent les g-rainmairiens, In Recto, 
quoique plus coufusement : et qu'ils ne significnt la forme c[\\' in direct e- 
ment, et comme ils parlent encore, In Oblupio, quoique plus distincte- 
ment. Ainsi, Blanc, candidus, signifie directeuieut ce qui a de la Blau- 
cfieur, habens candorem ; mais d'une nianicre fort confuse ne marquant 
en particulier aucune des clioses qui peuvcnt avoir de la blanclieur. Et 
il ne signifie ([u.'indirecteinent la blanclieur; mais d'une maniere aussi 
distincte ([ue le mot nicme de Blanchenr, candor." 

^ " lis sont dits Noms Adjectifs, quand les objcts sont consideres 
comme revctus de quclqucs (lualites ; parce qu'ils ajoutent une qualitc 



CH. VI.] OF ADJECTIVES. 643 

or the gay Lacqueys of the pleasant Abbe Girard : who^ after 
providing bis Substantive with Running Footmen to announce 
his approach (in the Article) could do no less for a word of such 
importance than furnish him, when occasion offered, with a 
numerous train in livery to support the eclat of his appearance.^ 
If, in what I have said of the Adjective, I have expressed 
myself clearly and satisfactorily ; you will easily observe that 
Adjectives, though convenient abbreviations, are not necessary 
to language ; and are therefore not ranked by me amongst 
the Parts of Speech, And perhaps you will perceive in the 
misapprehension of this useful and simple contrivance of 



a Tobjet. Mais, au fond, Tobjet n'ost bien designe que par les Noms 
Substantifs, qui par cet endroit, sont propremeut les seuls Noms. Ait 
fond, les Adjedifs sont de vrais Modificatifs des noms ; mais nous les 
regardons ici comme des noms, en taut qu'ils representent moins une 
qualite ou circonstance de I'objet, que I'objet meme en tant que revetu 
de cette qualite ou circonstance. 

" C'est une sorte de subtilite que nous incliquons pour prevenir ceiles 
qu'on pourroit nous objecter. N'omettons pas une refiexiou importante : 
savoir, qu'un Nom Adjectf devient souvent Siihstantif. En effet, sa 
nature etant d'exprimer la qualite d'un objet, si cette qualite est le sujet 
meme dont on parle, alors selon notre principe generale ce sera un Nam 
Substantf. 

"On demande, si le nom de Roi est Suhstantif ou Adjectf? II est 
I'un et I'autre selon I'emploi qu'on en fait. 

"Au reste, tons les noms qui d'eux-memes sont Adjectifs, ne sont 
pas censez tds dans I'usage commun de la grammaire ; qui depend en 
ce point, comme en une infinite d'autres, d'un usage arbitraire. Car 
elle n'appelle ordinairement Adjectf s, que ceux qui sans changer, ou sans 
presfpie changer d'inflexions et de terrainaison, se joignent indiffcremment 
a des noms substantifs de divers genres ; c'est a dire a des noms qui 
re9oivent avant eux la particule Le, ou la particule La, &c. 

" Au contraire les mots lioi, Ma(jistrat, &c. ne sont jamais censez 
Adjectifs dans I'usage de la grammaire ; quoiqu'ils le soient en effet tres 
souvent." 

^ " Les Adjectifs ne sont destines qu'a un service subalterne, consistaut 
a qualifier les denominations, lis sont du cortege des Substantifs, en 
portent les Livrees, et scrvent a leurs decorations. Voila pourquoi on 
leur a donne le nom d'Adjectifs, qu'annonce un personnage de la suite 
d'un autre. Cependant quoique places des leur origine dans I'etat de 
dcpendance et de somnission, ils ne laisscnt pas que d'etre par leurs 
couleurs et par leur magnificence une des plus brillantes parties de la 
parole, im champ fertile pour la poesie, une ressourco delicate pour les 
grands orateurs, et le point capital des mediocrcs." 

2 T 2 



644 OF ADJECTIVES. [PART II. 

language, one of the foundations of those heaps of false .phi- 
losophy and obscure (because mistaken) metaphysic, with 
which we have been bewildered. You will soon kuow what 
to do with all the technical impertinence about Qualities, 
Accidents, Substances, Substrata, Essence, the adjunct Natures 
of things, &c. &c. and will, I doubt not, chearfully proceed 
with me, in some future conversation, to " a very different sort 
of Logick and Critick than what we have been hitherto ac- 
quainted with.^^ Of which, a knowledge of the nature of 
language and of the meaning of words, is a necessary fore- 
runner. 

F. — That must be seen hereafter. But, if this be the case 
with Adjectives, whence arise the different sorts of terminations 
to different Adjectives ; when one sort of termination would 
have answered the purpose of attribution? Why have we 
Adjectives ending in ly, ous, ful, some, les, ish, &c. ? For you 
have taught me that terminations are not capriciously or for- 
tuitously employed ; though you will not allow them to be often 
the original and mere productions of art. 

H. — Adjectives with such terminations are, in truth, all 
compound words : the termination being originally a word added 
to those other words, of which it now seems merely the 
termination; though it still retains its original and distinct 
signification. These terminations will afford sufficient matter 
for entertainment to etymologists, which is not necessary for 
our present investigation. They are now more numerous in 
our language than they were formerly: because our authors 
have not been contented only to supply our defects by borrow- 
ing Adjectives which avc wanted in our language : but they 
have likewise borrowed and incorporated many adjective ter- 
minations which we did not want, being before in possession 
of correspondent terminations of our own, which answered 
the same purpose with those which they have unnecessarily 
adopted. So that we have now in some words a choice of 
different terminations by which to express one and the same 
idea : such as, Bountiful and Bounteous, Beautiful and 
Beauteous, Joyful and Joyous, kc} AVhich choice is indeed 



^ [" Plague-full venoiny." 

Godfrey of Bidloigne, cant. 4. st. 7. Translated by B. C. 1594. 



CH. VI.] OF ADJECTIVES. 645 

of advantage to the variety and harmony of the language, but is 
unphilosophical and unnecessary. 

F. — In the course of our conversation, besides noticing the 



" Eyed and praysd Armida past the while 
Through the desirefull troupes." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, cant. 4. st. 29. Translated hy R. C. 1594. 
" But none of these, how ever sweet they beene, 
Mote please his fancie, nor him o«use t' abide : 
His CHOICTEFULL sense with every change doth flit, 
No common things may please a wavering wit." 

Spenser's Muiopotmos, st. 30. 
" Love wont to be schoolmaster of ray skill, 
And the devicefull matter of my song." 

Spenser, Teares of the Muses. 
" The honest man that heard him thus complaine, 
Was griev'd as he had felt part of his paine ; 
And, well dispos'd him some reliefe to show^e, 
Askt if in husbandrie he ought did knowe. 
To plough, to plant, to reap, to rake, to sowe. 
To hedge, to ditch, to thrash, to tJietcJi, to mowe ; 
Or to what labour els he was prepar'd ? 
For husbands life is labourous and hard." 

Spenser, Mother Huhherds Tale. 
" The ape was stryfull and ambicious." Ibid. 

*' And day lie doth her change full counsels bend 

To make new matter fit for tragedies." Spenser, JDaphnaida. 

*' Who all the while, with greedie listfull eares, 
Did stand astonisht at his curious skill." 

Spenser, Colin Clouts come home again. 
" Whose grace was great, and bounty most reward full." Ibid. 

" Ye tradefull merchants, that, with weary toyle, 
Do seeke most pretious things to make your gain." 

Spenser, sonnet 15. 
" And with the brightnesse of her beautie cleare. 
The ravisht hearts of gazefull men might reare 
To admiration." Spenser, Hynme in honour of beautie. 

" There be other sorts of cryes also used among the Irish, which 
savour greatly of the Scythian barbarisme, as their lamentations at their 
buryals, with dispairfull outcryes, and immoderate waylings." — 
Spenser, View of the State of Ireland. 

" If his body were neglected, it is like that his languishing soule, 
being disquieted by his diseasefull body, would utterly refuse and 
loath all spirituall comfort." — Ibid. 

" Mischiefful " frequently used, as well as " Mischievous," in Bellnm 
Eraswi, by Berthelet, 1534.] 



646 OF ADJECTIVES. [PART II. 

defect of our own antient language, from a paucity of Adjec- 
tives ; you have been pleased (I know not on wliat foundation) 
to suppose that the want of an adjective termination was 
originally the case with all terms in the rude state of all lan- 
guages. But this is only your supposition in order to support 
your own theory. Does there_, from all antiquity, remain a 
single instance, or even the mention or suspicion of an instance, 
of any language altogether without Adjectives ? 

H. — Though nothing of tlie kind should remain, it will not 
in the least affect my explanation nor weaken my reasoning. 

F. — But, if there were such an instance ; or even any tradi- 
tional mention made of such a circumstance ; it would very 
much strengthen your argument in my opinion, and more rea- 
dily induce my assent. 

H. — I suppose you are not so obstinately attached to Anti- 
quity, but that a modern instance would answer the purpose as 
well. 

F. — Any instance of the fact from sufficient authority. 

H. — Then I believe I can suit you. — Doctor Jonathan Ed- 
wards, D.D., Pastor of a church in New-haven, in ^' Observa- 
tions on the language of the muhhekaneew Indians, communi- 
cated to the Connecticut Society of Arts and Sciences, published 
at the request of the Society, and printed by Josiah Meigs, 
1788,''^ gives us the following account. 

^' When I was but six years of age, my father removed with 
his family to Stockbridge, which at that time was inhabited by 
Indians almost solely. The Indians being the nearest neigh- 
bours,, I constantly associated with them ; their boys were 
my daily school-mates and play-fellows. Out of my father's 
house, I seldom heard any language spoken beside the Indian. 
By these means I acquired the knowledge of that language, 
and a great facility in speaking it : it became more familiar 
to me than my mother- tongue. I knew the names of some 
things in Indian, which I did not know in English : even all 
my thoughts ran in Indian ; and though the true pronunciation 
of the language is extremely difficult to all but themselves, 
they acknowledged that I had acquired it perfectly; which, 
as they said, never had been acquired before by any Anglo- 
American." 



CH. VII.] OF PARTICIPLES. 647 

After tliis account of himself^ he proceeds^ 

"The language which is now the subject of Observation, 
is that of the MuhhekaneeWj or Stockbridge Indians. They, 
as well as the tribe at New Loudon, are by the Anglo-Ameri- 
cans called Mohegans. This language is spoken by all the 
Indians throughout New England. Every tribe, as that of 
Stockbridge, of Farmington, of New London, &c., has a differ- 
ent dialect; but the language is radically the same. Mr. 
Elliotts translation of the Bible is in a particular dialect of this 
language. This language appears to be much more extensive 
than any other language in North America. The languages 
of the Delawares in Pennsylvania; of the Penobscots, border- 
ing on Nova Scotia ; of the Indians of St. Francis, in Canada ; 
of the Shawanese, on the Ohio ; and of the Chippewaus, at 
the westward of Lake Huron; are all radically the same with 
the Mohegan. The same is said concerning the languages of 
the Ottowans, Nanticooks, Munsees, Menomonees, Messi- 
saugas, Saukies, Ottagaumies, Killistinoes, Nipegons, Algon- 
kins, Winnebagoes, &c. That the languages of the several 
tribes in New England, of the Delawares, and of Mr. Elliotts 
Bible, are radically the same with the Mohegan, I assert from 
my own knowledge.^^ 

Having thus given an account of himself, and of his know- 
ledge of the language ; of the extensiveness of this language ; 
and of a translation of a Bible into this language ; he proceeds 
(in page 10) to inform us, that 

" The Mohegans have no Adjectives in all their language. 
Although it may at first seem not only singular and curious, 
but impossible, that a language should exist without Adjectives, 
yet it is an indubitable fact." 



CHAPTER VII. 

OF PARTICIPLES. 



F. — Let us proceed, if you please, to the Participle ; 
which, you know, is so named because — " partem capit a 



648 OF PARTICIPLES. [PART II. 

Nomine, partem a Verbo/' — '' Ortum a Verbo/' says Scaliger, 
"traxit secnm tempora et significationem, adjunxitque generi 
et casibus/' — " Ut igitur Mulus/' says Vossius, '' asini et equge^ 
unde generatur, participat indolem ; ita hujus classis omnia 
et nominis et verbi participant natiiram ; unde, et merito, 
Participia nominantur/^ 

I have a strong curiosity to know how yon will dispose of 
this Mule, (this tertium quid,) in English; where the Parti- 
ciple has neither Cases nor Gender; and which (if I under- 
stood you rightly some time since) you have stripped also of 
Time. We certainly cannot say that it is, in English, — " Pars 
orationis cum tempore et Casu : " or, — " Vox variabilis per 
Casus, significans rem cum tempore/^ Indeed since, by your 
account, it takes nothing from the Verb, any more than from 
the Noun ; its present name ought to be relinquished by us : 
for at all events it cannot be a participle in English. This 
however will not much trouble you : for, though Scaliger de- 
clares the PARTICIPLE to exist in language " necessitate quadam 
ac vi naturae ; '' you, by denying it a place amongst the Parts 
of Speech, have decided that it is not a necessary word, and 
perhaps imagine that we may do as well without it. 

H. — I fear you have mistaken me. I did not mean to deny 
the adsignification of Time to all the Participles; though I 
continue to withhold it from that which is called the Participle 
Present. 

F. — All the Participles ! Why, we have but Two in our 
language — The Present and the Past. 

H. — We had formerly but two. But so great is the con- 
venience and importance of this useful Abbreviation ; that our 
authors have borrowed from other languages, and incorporated 
with our own. Four other Participles of equal value. We are 
obliged to our old translators for these new Participles. I 
wish they had understood what they were doing at the time : 
and had been taught by their wants the nature of the ad- 
vantages which the learned languages had over ours. They 
would then perhaps have adopted the contrivance itself into 
our own language, instead of contenting themselves with 
taking individually the terras which they found they could 



CH. VII.] OF PARTICIPLES. 

not translate. But they proceeded in the same manner 
■with these new Participles_, as with the new Adjectives I before 
mentioned to you : they did not abbreviate their own language 
in imitation of the others ; but took from other languages their 
abbreviations ready made. And thus again the foreigner, after 
having learned all our English verbs, must again have recourse 
to other languages in order to understand the meaning of many 
of our Participles. 

I cannot however much blame my countrymen for the 
method they pursued, because the very nations who enjoyed 
these advantages over us, were not themselves aware of the 
nature of what they possessed : at least so it appears by all 
the accounts which they have left us of the nature of Speech; 
and by their distribution and definitions of the parts of which 
it is composed : and their posterity (the modern Greeks and the 
Italians) have been punished for the ignorance or carelessness 
of their ancestors, by the loss of gi^eat part of these advantages : 
which I suppose they would not have lost, had they known what 
they were. 

As for the term participle, I should very willingly get rid 
of it : for it never was the proper denomination of this sort of 
word. Aud this improper title, I believe, led the way to its 
faulty definition : and both together have caused the obstinate 
and still unsettled disputes concerning it ; and have prevented 
the improvement of language, in this particular, generally 
through the world. . 

The elder Stoics called this word — " Modum Verbi casualem." 
And in my opinion they called it well : except only that, 
instead of Casualem, they should have said Adjectivum ; for the 
circumstance of its having Cases was only a consequence of its 
Adjection. But this small error of theirs cannot be wondered 
at in them, who, judging from their own transposed language, 
had no notion of a Noun, much less of an Adjective of any kind, 
without Cases. 

I desire therefore, instead of participle, to be permitted to 
call this word generally a Verb adjective. And I call it by this 
new name, because I think it will make more easily intelligible 
what I conceive to be its office and nature. 

This kind of word, of which we now speak, is a very useful 



650 OF PARTICIPLES. [pART II. 

Abhreviaiion : for we have the same occasion to adjective the 
VERB as we have to adjective the noun. Aiid_, by means of a 
distinguishing termination, not only the simple Verb itself, but 
every Mood, and every Tetise of the verb, may be made adjective, 
as well as the Noun. And accordingly some languages have 
adjectived more, and some languages have adjectived fewer 
of these Moods and Tenses. 

And here I must observe that the Moods and Tenses them- 
selves are merely Abbreviations : I mean that they are nothing 
more than the circumstances of Manner and Time, added to the 
Verb in some languages by distinguishing terminations. 

When it is considered that our language has made but small 
progress, compared either with the Greek or with the Latin 
(or some other languages) evBn in this Modal and Temporal 
abbreviation : (for we are forced to perform the greatest part of 
it by what are called Auxiliaries, i. e. separate words signifying 
the added circumstances;) when this is considered, it will not 
be wondered at, that the English, of itself, could not proceed 
to the next abbreviating step, viz. of adjectiving those first 
Abbreviations of Mood and Tense, which our language had not : 
and that it has therefore been obliged to borrow i^any of the 
advantages of this kind which it now enjoys, either mediately 
or immediately from those two first-mentioned languages. And 
when it is- considered, that the nature of these advantages was 
never well understood, or at least not delivered down to us, even 
by those who enjoyed them; it will rather be matter of wonder 
that we have adopted into our language so many, than that we 
have not taken all. 

This sort of word is therefore by no means the same with a 
Noun adjective (as Sanctius, Perizonius and others after them 
have asserted). But it is a Verb adjective. AiM'yet what 
Perizonius says, is true — "Certe omnia quse de Nomine ad- 
jectivo affirmantur, habet Participium.^' This is true. The 
Participle has all that the Noun adjective has : and for the 
same reason, viz. for the purpose of Adjection. But it has 
likewise something more than the Noun adjective has : because 
the Verb has something more than the Noun. And that some- 
thing more, is not (as Perizonius procjjseds to assert) only the 
adsignification of Time. For every Verb has a signification of 



CH. VII.] OF PARTICIPLES. 651 

its owrij distinct from Manner and Time. And language has 
as much occasion to adjective the distinct signification of the 
Verb, and to adjective also the Mood, as it has to adjective the 
Time. And it has therefore accordingly adjeciived all three ; 
— the distinct signification of the simple Verb ; and the Verb 
with its Moods; and the Ve7^b with its Tenses.' I shall at 
present notice only Sia^ of- these Verb adjectives which we now 
employ in English: viz. The simple Verb itself adjective; two 
Adjective Tenses ; and three Adjective Moods. 

Bear patiently with my new terms. I use them only by 
compulsion. I am chiefly anxious that my opinion may be 
clearly understood : and that my errors (if they are such) may 
plainly appear without any obscurity or ambiguity of expres- 
sion : by which means even my errors may be useful. 

We had formerly in English only the simple Verb Adjective : 
and the Past Tense Adjective. In addition to these two^, we 
have now the convenience of four others. Which I must call, 

The Potential Mood Active, Adjective ; 
The Potential Mood Passive, Adjective ; 
The Official Mood Passive, Adjective ; 
And ^hQ Future Tense Active, Adjective. 

Still have patience with me; and, I trust, I shall finally 
make myself clearly understood. 

And first for our simple Verb Adjective. It was formerly 
known in our language by the termination -and. It is now 
known by the termination -ing. 

As the Noun Adjective always signifies all that t;he unad- 
jectived Noun signifies, and no more ; (except the circumstance 
of adjection ;) so must the Verb Adjective signify all that the 
unadjectived Verb signifies, and no more (except the circum- 
stance of adjection.) — But it has been usual to suppose that 
with the Indicative Mood (as it is called) is conjoined also the 
signification of the Present Time, and therefore to call it the 
Indicative Mood, Present Tense. And if it were so, then in- 
deed the word we are now considering, besides the signifi- 
cation of the Verb, must likewise adsignify some Manner and 
the Present Time : for it would then be the Present Tense Adjec-^ 
live, as well as the Indicative Mood Adjective. But I deny it 
to be either. I deny that the Present Time (or any Time) or any 



652 or PARTICIPLES. [part II. 

Manner, is signified by that which is called (improperly) the 
Indicative Mood Present Tense. And therefore its proper name 

is merely the Verb Indicative, if you please : i. e. Indicative 

merely of being a Ve7'b. 

And in this opinion (viz. that there is no adsignification of 
Manner or Time in that which is called the Indicative Mood : 
and no adsignification of Time in that which is called the Pre- 
sent Participle) I am neither new nor singular: for Sanctius 
both asserted and proved it by numerous instances in the Latin. 
Such as, 

" Et ab/ui prqficiscens in Grseciam." Cic. 

" Sed postquam amans accessit pretium pollicens." Terent. 

" Ultro ad earn venies indicans te amare." Ibid. 

" Turn apri inter se dimicant indurantes attritu arborura costas." Plin. 
*' TviYmxm fugientem hsec terra videbit.'^ Virg. 

In the same manner we say, 

" The sun rises every day in the year." 

" Justice is at all times Mercy." * 

" Truth is always one and the same from the beginning of the world 
to the end of it." 

Neither I'ime nor Manner is signified by the Indicative in 
these sentences. 
Again, — 

" The risiTig sun always gladdens the earth." 
" Do justice, justice being at all times Mercy." 

" My argument is of no age nor country, truth being always the same, 
from the beginning of the world to the end of it." 

In rising and being {though called Present Participles) there 
is evidently here no adsignification of Time. 

Scaliger saw plainly the same. He says — "Modus non 
fuit necessarius : unus enim tantum exigitur ob veritatem, In- 
dicativus. Cseteri autem ob commoditatem potius." 

And even Perizonius and others who maintain a contrary 
opinion, are compelled to acknowledge, that — " Indicativus 
adhibetur ad indicandam simpliciter rem ipsam." 

" Horum autem participiorum magis promiscuus aliquando 
est usus; turn quia nomina sunt, et ssepe adhibentur sine ullo 



CH. VII.] OP PARTICIPLES. 653 

temporis respectu aut designatione ; quando scil. ejus distinctio 
non requiritur" 

^'Hsec ipsa autem res^ h. e. adsignificatio temporis_, ne quis 
prsecipuam pTitet_, ssepissime reperitur neglecta, immo plane ex- 
tinctaP 

^*^Animadvertendum est, uno in commate ssepe diversa no- 
tari tempora, atque adeo Prasens vere Participiwn posse acce- 
dere omnibus omnino periodis_, in quibus etiam de prceterita et 
futura re agitur. Quia ^^ — (Having by compulsion admitted the 
fact_, now come the shallow and shuffling pretences) '^ Quia in 
prseterita ilia re_, quum gesta est, Praesens Fuit : et in futura, 
item Prasens Erit." 

'^ Recurrendum denique ad illud etiam, — Prcssens haberi pro 
extremo Prceteriti temporis puncto, et primo FuturiJ' 

" Advenientes dicuntur, non illi tantum qui in itinere sunt, 
sed et qui jam pervenerunt in locum ad quem tendebant, et 
speciem advenientis adhuc retinent/^ 

Prcesens — quia prsesens Fuitj et prsesens Erit ! 

Prcesens — extremum prseteriti punctum, et primum futuri ! 

Advenientes — qui pervenerunt ! 

These shabby evasions are themselves sufficient argument 
against those who use them. A common termination (i. e. a 
coalesced word), like every other word, must always convey 
the same distinct meaning; and can only then be properly 
used, quando Distinctio requiritur. What sort of word would 
that be, which, (used too with propriety,) sometimes had a 
meaning, and sometimes had not a meaning, and sometimes a 
dijfferent meaning ? 

Thus stands the whole matter. Case, Gender, Number, are 
no parts of the noun. But as these same circumstances fre- 
quently accompany the Noun, these circumstances are signified 
by other words expressive of these circumstances : and in some 
languages these words by their perpetual use have coalesced 
with the Noun ; their separate signification has been lost sight 
of (except in their proper application ;) and these words have 
been considered as mere artificial terminations of the noun. 

So, Mood, Tense, Number, Person, are no parts of the verb. 
But these same circumstances frequently accompanying the 
Verb, are then signified by other words expressive of these 



654 . OF PARTICIPLES. [PART II. 

circumstances : and again, in some languages, these latter 
words, by their perpetual recurrence, have coalesced with the 
Verb ; their separate signification has been lost sight of (except 
in their proper application ;) and these words have been con- 
sidered as mere artificial terminations of the verb. 

The proper application of these coalesced words, or termina- 
tions, to Nouns, has been called Declension : and to Verbs, 
has been called Conjugation. And perhaps this arrangement and 
these denominations may have greatly contributed to withdraw 
us from a proper consideration of this matter : for we are all very 
apt to rest satisfied with a name, and to inquire no further. 

And thus have I given you my opinion concerning what is 
called the Present Participle} Which I think improperly so 
called ; because I take it to be merely the simple Verb adjec- 
tived, without any adsignification of Manner or Time. 

F. — Now then let us proceed to the Past Participle, which 
you chuse to call the Past Tense Adjective. 

H. — As far as relates to what is called the Indicative Mood, 
and consequently to its Adjective, the Participle Present ; you 
have seen that, so far, Sanctius and I have travelled in perfect 
accord together. But here again I must get out at Hounslow. 
I cannot proceed with him to the exclusion of the other Moods 
and Tenses : for, in Latin, they have distinct terminations, and 
in English, termination and auxiliaries, signifying the circum- 
stances of Manner and Time. Nor, consequently, can I con- 
sent to exclude the other Participles, which are indeed merely 
those Moods and Tenses, adjectived ; and do truly therefore 
adsignify Manner and Time. The Manner being adjectived as 
well as the Time (i. e. the Mood as well as the Tense ; ) and 
both for the same reason, and with the same convenience and 
advantage. In our own language these Manners and Times 
are usually (but not always) signified by words distinct from 
the Verb, which we call auxiliaries. In some other languages 
they are signified also by words, different indeed from the Verb, 
but which have coalesced with the Verb, and are now considered 
merely as terminations; equally auxiliary however with our 
micoalescing words, and used for the same purpose. 

^ [See Additional Notes.] 



CH. VII.] OF PARTICIPLES. 655 

I hold then that we may and do adjective the simple Verb 
without adsignification of Manner or Time : that we m.ay and 
do adjective the Verb in conjunction with an expressed Time : 
and that we may and do adjective the Verb in conjunction with 
an expressed Manner. I hold that all these are greatly and 
equally convenient for the abbreviating of speech : and that the 
language which has more of these conveniences does so far 
forth excel the language which has fewer. 

The Past Participle^ or the Past Tense Adjective, our lan- 
guage has long enjoyed : and it is obtained (as we also adjective 
the Noun) by adding En or Ed to the Past Tense of the verb. 
The Latin makes an Adjective of the Past Tense (as it also 
makes an Adjective of the Noun) merely by adding its Article 
09. 77. ov. to the third person of the Past Tense, 

Amavit, Amavitus, Amavtus, Amatus. 

Docuit, Docuitus, Docitus, Doctus. 

Legit, Legitus, Legtus, Lectus. 

Audivit, Audivitus, Audivtus, Auditus. 

And that this Past Participle is merely the Past Tense Ad- 
jective ; that it has merely the same meaning as the Past 
Tense, and no other ; is most evident in English : because, in 
the same manner as we often throw one Noun substantive to 
another Noun substantive, without any change of termination to 
shew that it is so intended to be thrown ; we are likewise accus- 
tomed to use the Past Tense itself without any change of termi- 
nation_, instead of this Past Participle : and the Past Tense so 
used_, answers the purpose equally with the Participle, and con- 
veys the same meaning. 

Dr. Lowth_, who was much better acquainted with Greek 
and Latin than with English, and had a perfectly elegant 
Greek and Latin taste, finds great fault with this our English 
custom ; calls it confusion, absurdity, and a very gross corrup- 
tion; pronounces it altogether barbarous, and wholly inexcu- 
sable ; and complains that it — " is too much authorized by the 
example of some of our best writers." He then gives instances 
of this inexcusable barbarism, from Shakespeare, Milton, Dry- 
den,^ Clarendon, Atterbury, Prior, Swift, Addison, Misson, 

^ [" For who can shew me, since tlicy first were wkit, 
They e'er converted one hard-hearted Wit ? " 

Bryden, Prol. to The Rival Ladies. 



656 OF PARTICIPLES. [PART U. 

Bolingbroke^ Pope^ and Gay. And if he had been pleased 
to go further back than Shakespeare^ he might also have 
given instances of the same from every writer in the English 
tongue.^ It is the idiom of the language. He is therefore 

" Had there been choice, what would I not Lave chose ? " 

Dry den, Rival Ladies, act 4. sc. 3. 
" I made a sacred and a solemn vow 
To offer up the prisoners that were took." 

Dry den, Indian Queen, act 2. sc. 1. 
" Let me then share your griefs, that in your fate 
Wou'd have took part." Ibid, act 2. sc. 1. 

" In one moment this new guest 

Has DROVE me out from this false woman's breast." 

Ibid, act 3. sc. 1. 
" Part of which poem was writ by me." — Connection of the Indian 
Emperor to the Indian Queen. 

" For life and death are things indifferent ; 
Each to be chose, as either brings content." 

Dry den, Indian Emperor, act 2. sc. 1. 
" You might howe'er have took a fairer way." Ibid, act 3. sc. 2. 

*' His mind is shook." Ibid, act 4. sc. 1. 

" High trees are shook, because they dare the winds." 

Dry den. The Maiden Queen, act 2. sc. 5. 
" Peace, peace, thou should'st for ever hold thy tongue ; 

Por it has spoke too much for all thy life." Ibid, act 5. sc. 1. 

" Courage, my friend, and rather praise we heaven, 
That it has chose two such as you and me." 

Dry den, Amboyna, act 5. sc. 1. 
" Guilt and distraction could not have shook him more." 

Dry den, (Edijpus, act 4. sc. 1. 
" As well thou may'st advise a tortur'd wretch. 
All mangled o'er from head to foot with wounds, 
And his bones broke, to wait a better day." Ibid, act 4. sc. 1.] 
^ [" All the moderns who have wrote upon this subject." — Dr. 
Taylor, Elements of Civil Law, 1755. p. 10. 

"Were wrote originally in Latin." — Ibid. p. 22. 
" Providence, which has wove us into this texture." — Ibid. p. 84. 
" The mistakes upon this head have arose from hence." — Ibid. p. 152. 
" TuUius, being chose king by the suffrage of the people." 

Ibid. p. 206. 
" The ancient statuary has been thought to have arose from this 
figure." — Ibid. p. 459. 

" I have SPOKE to it in my Commentary upon the Sandwich Marble." 
—Ibid. p. 467. 



CH. VII.] OF PARTICIPLES* 657 

undoubtedly in an error, when lie says that — " This abuse has 
been long growing upon us, and is continually making further 
incroachments/^ For, on the contrary, the custom has greatly 
decreased : and as the Greek and Latin languages have become 
more familiar to Englishmen, and more general ; our language 
has continually proceeded more and more to bend and incline 
to the rules and customs of those languages. And we have 
greatly benefited by those languages; and have improved our 
own language, by borrowing from them a more abbreviated 
and compact method of speech. And had our early or later 
authors known the nature of the benefits we were receiving ; we 
might have benefited much more extensively. 

However we shall be much to blame, if, with Dr. Lowth, we 
miss the advantage which our less cultivated language afi'ords 
us by its defects : for by those very defects it will assist us 
much to discover the nature of human speech, by a comparison 
of our own language with more cultivated languages. And this 
it does eminently in the present instances of the Past Participle 
^nd the Noun Adjective. For, since we can and do use our 
Noun itself unaltered, and our Past Tense itself unaltered, for 
the same purpose and with the same meaning, as the Greek and 
Latin use their Adjective and their Participle ; it is manifest 
that their Adjective and Participle are merely their Noun and 
Past Tense, Adjectived. 



" Budaius in particular has wrote upon it very largely." — Br. Tay- 
lor ^ Elements of Civil Law, 1755, p. 490. 

" I find one Lucullas, whose life is wrote by Plutarch." — Ibid. 
p. 512. 

" We are assured, that the following words were not wrote in his 
time." — Ibid. p. 555.] 

[Our older writers, who are admirable for their rhythm and cadence, 
availed themselves of this latitude, in giving harmony to their language : 
thus, in the same chapter, 

1 Kings, viii. 13. — "I have surely built thee a house to dwell in." 

27. — "how much less this house that I have builded." 
43. — "this house which I have builded is called by 

thy name." 
44. — "toward the house that I liave built for thy 
name." — Ed.] 



2 u 



658 



OF PARTICIPLES. 



[part II. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 



F. — Well. Now for yonr four Abbreviations : which, you 
say^ we have adopted from those other languages. 

H. — That which I call the Potential Passive Adjective is that 
which our antient writers first adopted; and which we have 
since taken in the greatest abundance : not led to it by any 
reasoning, or by any knowledge of the nature of the words ; but 
by their great practical convenience and usefulness. I mean 
such words as the following, whose common termination has 
one common meaning. 



Admissible 


Immutable 


Intolerable 


Affable 


Incorrigible 


Tractable 


Ineffable 


Incredible 


Formidable 


Inaccessible 


Culpable 


Fusible 


Amiable 


Despicable 


Heritable 


Arable 


Indivisible 


Impregnable 


Audible 


Indubitable 


Indefatigable 


Cognizable 


Eligible 


Indefeisible 


Incombustible 


Inexplicable 


Indelible 


Incompatible 


Infallible 


Inadmissible 


Contemptible 


Feasible 


Inevitable 


Inexorable 


Inflexible. 


Immiscible 


Inexpugnable 


Noble 


Inimitable 


Insatiable 


Palpable 


Vendible 


Inscrutable 


Penetrable 


Visible 


Intelligible 


Imperceptible 


Vulnerable, 


Interminable 


Impracticable 


&c. 


Investigable 
Invincible 


Implacable 
Plausible 


As well as the con- 
tracted 


Irrefragable 


Pliable 


Irremissible 


Portable 


Missile 


Irascible 


Possible 


Docile 


Laudable 


Probable 


Ductile 


Legible 


Sensible 


Projectile 


Liable 


Soluble 


Frail 


Malleable 


Tangible 


Facile, 


Incommensurable 


Tenable 


&c. 



CH. VIII.] OP PARTICIPLES. 659 

These words, and such as these, our early authors could not 
possibly translate into English, but by a periphrasis. They 
therefore took the words themselves as they found them : and 
the same practice, for the same reason, being followed by their 
successors ; the frequent repetition of these words has at length 
naturalized them in our language. But they who first intro- 
duced these words, thought it necessary to explain them to 
their readers : and accordingly we find in your manuscript New 
Testament, which (whoever was the Translator) I suppose to 
have been written about the reign of Edward the third j^ in 
that manuscript we find an explanation accompanying the 
words of this sort which are used in it. And this circumstance 
sufficiently informs us, that the adoption was at that time but 
newly introduced. 

" I do thankingis to God up on the unenaruable, or, tliat may not 
he told, gifte of hym." — 2 CorintJiies, cap. 9. 

" Thanks be unto God for liis unspeakable gift." — Modern Version, 
ver. 15. 

" Whom whanne ye han not seyn ye louen, in to whom also now ye 
not seynge bileuen, forsoth ye bileuynge shulen haue ioye with oute- 
forth in gladnesse unenarkable, tJiat may not he teld oiitJ" — 1 Petir, 
cap. 1. 

''Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see 
him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspealmhle'' — Modern 
Version, ver. 8. 

" From hennesforth brithren, Whateuer thingis ben sothe, whateuer 
thingis chaist, whateuer thingis iust, whateuer thingis holi, whateuer 
thingis AMYABLE, or, ahle to he louyd.''^ — Fhilippensis, cap. 4. 

" Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things 
are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, 
whatsoever things are lovely." — Modern Version, ver. 8. 

" The whiche is not maid up the lawe of fleshly maunderaent : but up 
vertu of lyf insolible, or, that may not he undon.'' — Ebreivis, cap. 7. 

" Who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after 
the power of an endless life." — Modern Version, ver. 16. 



^ I suppose it to be about this date ; amongst other reasons, because 
it retains the Anglo-Saxon Tketa, the ambiguous 5, and the 1 without a 
point over it. But 1 am not sufHciently conversant with Manuscripts to 
say W'hen the use of these characters ceased. 

2 u 2 



^60 OF PARTICIPLES. [pART II. 

*' Forsothe wisdom tliat is fro aboue, first sotheli it is chast, aftir- 
warde pesible, raylde, swadible, that is, esifor to trete and to he tretid.'" 
— James, cap. 3. 

" But the wisdom that is from above, is first pure, then peaceable, 
gentle, and easy to he intreated.'" — Modern Version, ver. 17. 

Gower_, in his Conf. Amant. (written^ as he informs ns, in 
the sixteenth year of Richard the second) has taken very little 
advantage of this then newly introduced abbreviation. He 
uses only six of these words^ viz. Credible, Excusable, Impos- 
sible, Incurable, Invisible, Noble ; and one, made by himself, I 
believe, in imitation, Chaceable. 
" She toke hir all to venerie, 

In foreste and in wildcrnesse, 

Tor there was all hir besinesse 

By daie, and eke by nightes tide, 

With arowes brode under the side, ,. 

And bow in honde, of whiche she slough 

And toke all that hir lyst enough 

Of beastes whiche ben chaceable." 

Gotcer, lib. 5. fol. 90. p.. 2. col. 1. 

Chaucer uses many more of these words than Gower did ; 
but in nothing like such quantities as have been since employed 
in our language. 

F' — I understand you then to say that the words in our 
language with the termination ble_, are merely the Potential 
Passive Adjective : and that we have adopted this termination 
from the Latin, for the purpose of abbreviation. But the Latin 
Grammarians had no such notion of this termination. They 
have assigned no separate office, nor station, nor title, to this 
kind of word. They have not ranked it even amongst their 
participles. They call these words merely Verbalia in Bilis : 
which title barely informs us, that they have indeed something 
or other to do with the verbs ; but what that something is, they 
have not told us. Indeed they are so uncertain concerning the 
relation which these words bear to the verb ; that most of the 
grammarians, Vossius, Perizonius, Goclenius, and others, tell 
us, that these Verbalia in Bills signify sometimes passively and 
sometimes actively. And I am sure we use great numbers of 
words with this termination in English, which do not appear to 
signify cither actively or passively. 



CH. VIII.] 



OF PARTICIPLES. 



661 



Vossius says — '' Hujusmodi verbalia s<Bpius exponuntur 
passive, interdum et active.'' 

Perizonius— " Porro sunt et alia unius formce vocabula, du- 
plicem tarn en, turn activam, turn passivam habentia significa- 
tionem ; veluti Adjectiva in Bilis exeuntia. De quorum passiva 
significatione nuUu?n est dubium. De activa, hsec exempli loco 
habe, &c.'' 

And I think I could, Tvitbout much trouble, furnish you with 
a larger catalogue of words in Ble, used in English, without a 
passive signification ; than you have furnished of those with a 
passive signification. 

What say you to such as these ? 



Abominable 

Accordable 

Agreeable 

Amicable 

Available 

Capable 

Charitable 

Colourable ^ 

Comfortable 

Concordable 

Conducible 



Convenable 

Culpable 

Customable 

Delectable 

Discordable 

Durable 

Entendable 

Favourable ' 

Forcible 

Honourable 

Inclinable 



Miserable 
Pleasurable 
Profitable 
Proportionable 
Reasonable 
Risible 
Semblable 
Vengeable 
Veritable 
&c. 



And the French have a multitude besides, such as secourable, 
&c. which we have not adopted from them. 

jy.— All this is very true. But what says Scaliger of these 
Verbals in Bilis? — " Recentiores audacter nimis jam actus sig- 
nificationem attribuere, idque frivolis sane argumentis. Auxere 
errorem pertinacia. Poetica licentia dictum est, Penetrabile 
active.'' — De Causis, lib. 4. cap. 98. 

Scaliger speaks of their frivolous arguments ; but I have 
never yet seen any attempt at any argument whatever on the 
subject. They bring some examples indeed of an active use of 
some words in Bilis. From good authors they are very few 



^["They may have now a colorable pretence to withstand such 
mnovtxiioiis.''—Sfenser's Fleio of the State of Ireland, Todd's edit. 1S05. 
p. 310.] 



662 OF PARTICIPLES. [PART II. 

indeed : from Virgil one word ; two from Terence ; one from 
Livy j one from Tacitus ; one from Quintus Curtius ; one from 
Valerius Maximus : they produce abundance from Plautus^ who 
used such words as voluptahilis, ignorabilis, &c. And after the 
Latin language became corrupted ; in its decay^ we meet with 
heaps of them. It is in the terminations chiefly that languages 
become corrupted : and I suppose the corruption arises from not 
having settled or well understood the meaning and purpose of 
those terminations. 

Had the Latin Grammarians been contented with the old 
Stoic definition of Modus verbi casualiSj these verbals might 
very well have been ranked with their participles ; but when 
they defined the participle to be a word significans cum tempore^ 
these verbals were necessarily excluded : and to retain the 
participle present, as they called it, they were compelled obsti- 
nately, against all reason and evidence, to maintain that there 
was a signification of Time, both in the Indicative and in its 
Adjective the present participle; although there was no termi- 
nation or word added to the Indicative of the verb, by which 
any Time could be signified. With equal reason might they 
contend, that the same word with the termination Bilis, was 
properly used to signify indifferently two almost opposite 
ideas ; viz. To Feel, or. To be Felt ; To Beat, or. To be Beaten : 
which would be just as rational, as that the same word should 
be purposely employed in speech, to signify equally the horse 
which is ridden, and the man who rides him. Words may 
undoubtedly, at some times and by some persons, be so abused : 
and too frequently they are so abused. And when any word 
or termination becomes generally so abused, it becomes use- 
less ; and in fact ceases to be a word : for that is not a word, 
whose signification is unknown. A few of these corruptions 
may be borne in a language, and the context of the sentence 
may assist the hearer to comprehend the speaker's meaning ; 
but when the bulk of these terminations in a language becomes 
generally so corrupted, that language is soon broken up and 
lost : and, to supply the place of these corrupted words or 
terminations, men are forced to have recourse again to other 
words or terminations which may convey distinct meanings to 
the hearer. 

Scaliger, distinguishing properly between His (he should 



CH. VIII.] OF PARTICIPLES. 663 

have said Bills; for the b is important to this termination) 
and IvuSj instances a similar distinction and convenience in 
the Greek language, viz. accrOrjrov and acaOrjTiKov. And this 
instance ought to make an Englishman blush for his country- 
men ; whose ignorance commonly employs the corresponding 
word to aicrOrjTov, sensible, in three different meanings; al- 
though (thanks to our old translators) we have now in our 
language, three distinct terminations for the purpose of di- 
stinction: We have Senseful;'^ — Sensitive; — Sensible;^ — Sen- 
sevole ; — Sensitivo ; — Sensibile ; — Full of Sense ; — which can 



^ [" Why lest thus he talkt, the knight with greedy eare 
Hong still upon his melting mouth attent : 
Whose SENSEFULL words empierst his hart so neare, 
That he was wrapt with double ravishment." 

Faerie Queene, book 6. cant. 9. st. 26.] 

^ ["The same statutes are so slackely penned (besides the latter of 
them is so unsensibly contryved, that it scarce carryeth any reason in 
it." — Spenser's View of the State of Ireland. Todd's edit. p. 337.] 

" If acts of parliament were after the old fashion penned by such only 
as perfectly knew, what the Common Law was before the making of any 
act of parliament concerning that matter, as also how far forth former 
statutes had provided remedy for former mischiefs and defects discovered 
by experience; then should very few questions in law arise, and the 
learned should not so often and so much perplex their heads to make 
atonement and peace, by construction of law, between insensible and 
disagreeing words, sentences and provisoes, as they now do." — Coke, 2. 
Eep. Pref. 

[" Ah, torto si crudel non farmi, Ismene, 
Quando ancora a tuoi pregi, 
Quando alia tua belta sol fra' viventi 
Insensibil foss' io, come potrei 
Esserlo al si costante 
Generoso amor tuo." 

Metastasio^ Fartenope. Parte seconda. Edit. 
Parigi, 1781. tom. 9. p. 374.] 

[" Grumio. Lend thine ear. 
Curtis. Here. 

Grumio. There. \_St7'iking Mm. 

Curtis. This is to feel a tale, not to hear a talc. 
Grumio. And therefore 'tis called a sensible tale." — Tarn. Shrew, iv. 1. 
This play on the word shows that it had both meanings in Shake- 
speai'e's time. 

" It would have been insensible and unnatural not to have done it." — 
Garrick's Correspondence, Letter to Woodfall, Nov. 20, 1771. — Ed.] 



664 OF PARTICIPLES. [PART II. 

feel; — wliicli may be felt. Yet it is not very uncommon 
to hear persons talk of — "A Sensible man^ who is very 
Senaible of the cold^ and of any Sensible change in the 
weather/^ 

I wish this were a solitary instance in our language; but 
this abuse, like the corrupt influence of the crown, (in the 
language of parliament twenty years ago) has increased, is in- 
creasing, and ought to be diminished. Much of this abuse in 
our speech we owe to the French : whom however it would 
be ungrateful in us to reproach with it ; because I believe we 
owe likewise to these same French all the benefit of all these 
abbreviations which we have borrowed : for though it is true 
that they proceed originally from the Latin ; yet we have them 
mediately through the Italian and the French. And we ought 
to be contented, as the French also ought with their revolution, 
to take the good and the bad together ; especially if, as in both 
cases, the good preponderates beyond all comparison over the 
bad ; and more especially still, if we may retain the benefit, and 
avoid the future mischief. 

The words in Ble which you have opposed to me, we have 
taken from the French, who took them corruptly from the 
Italian. And it happened in this manner. Our Anglo-Saxon 
Fullj which with the Germans is Vol, became the Italian Vole : 
and there was something in the sound of Vole so pleasing to 
an Italian ear; that many of their authors (led by their ears 
and not by their understanding, without any occasion for it, 
deciding on its propriety by the sound and not by the signifi- 
cation) added it as a termination to many of their words ; not 
only where the signification suited, but often where it did not : 
and, amongst others. Cardinal Bembo in particular is much and 
justly ridiculed, for his very injudicious and wholesale applica- 
tion of this termination.^ 



^ " A fin de ne rieii laisser en arriere, tant qu'il me sera possible, je 
leur rcpondray a ce en quoy ils seinblent avoir quelque coiileur de pre- 
tendie leur langiie avoir de la ffe/dillesse que la nostre n'ha point. lis 
disent done ({u'ils ont quelques terminaisons de Noras fort plaisantes et 
gentiles, desquelles nous sonimes destituez. Et la principale de celles 
qu'ils mettent en avant, c'cst des mots qui finissent en Ole : comme 
Fiacevole, Favorevole. le confesse que ceste terminaison est belle : mais 
jc di qu'une chose belle perd sa grace quand on en abuse. Or qu'ainsi 



CH. VIII.] 



OF PARTICIPLES. 



665 



Hence the Italian words^ 
Abominevole Convenevole 



Onorevole 

Piacevole 

Profittevole 

Proporzionevole 

Kagionevole 

Ridevole 

Sembievole 

Soccorevole 

Valevole 

Vendichevole 

Veritevole^ &c. 



Accordevole Costumevole 

Aggradevole Dilettevole 

Amichevole Discordevole 

Capevole Durevole 

Caritatevole Favorevole 

Colore vole Forzevole 

Colpevole Inchinevole 

Concordevole Intendevole 

Conducevole Memorevole 

Confortevole Miserevole 

Which the French by a most slovenly pronunciation, not dis- 
tinguishing between Bile and Voky have transformed into — 
Abominable, Agreable, Amicable, Capable, Charitable, Confort- 
able, Convenable, Coupable, Delectable, Durable, Favorable, 
Forcible, Honorable, Miserable, jNIemorable, Profitable, Propor- 
tionable, Raisonable, Risible, Semblable, Valable, Yengeable, 
Veritable, Secourable, &c. 

In this manner our own word Full, (passing through the 
German, the Italian, and the French,) comes back to us again 
under the corrupt shape of Ble : and in that shape to the great 
annoyance of its original owners : for it tends to confound 
those terminations, whose distinct application and employment 
are so important to the difi'erent and distinct purposes of 
speech. 



soit que quelquesuns en abusent, il appert par la controverse qui est 
entre eux touchant le mot Capevole, et quelques autres. Car tous re- 
Qoivent bien Favorevole, Piacevole, Amorevole, Latidevole,^ Houorevole, 
Biamevole, Solazzevole, et plusieurs serablables : mais quant a Capevole, et 
quelques autres, ils ne sont pas receus de tous. Car aucuns disent qu'en ce 
mot Capevole on abuse de ceste tenninaison Ole, et qu'il faut A\\q Capace. 
Or quant a Capevole je sc^ay bien que leur Bembo en use au premier livre 
dii traittce intitule Le Prose. Mais on pent dire qu'il ne s'en font pas 
fier a luy : pource qu'il usoit tant des mots ayans ceste terminaison qu'il 
s'en rendoit ridicule. 

" Or est il certain que comme Bembo usoit tiop de ces mots, de sorte 
qu'il rendoit leur beaute ennuyeuse, et luy faisoit perdre sa grace ; quelques 
autres aussi ont faict, et aucuns encore aujourdliuy font le mesme." — 
Henry Ediene, De la preceUence, &c. p. 5-i. 



666 OF PARTICIPLES. [PART II. 

Besides tliese corruptions of Vole, we have many other cor- 
rupt terminations in Ble, which are blemishes in the language ; 
and which I am persuaded would not have happened to it, 
had the Verbals in Bills, their nature_, their proper use, and 
their great advantage been previously understood. Bujolum, 
Trijohim, Humile, Tabula, Fabula, Rabula, Syllaba, Parabola, 
Biblium, Qicidlibet, VestiJjulum, Ambulare, Bissimulare, Scri- 
hillare, Tremulare, &c. &c. Tuimelen, Grommelen, Kruimelen, 
Rommelen, Fommelen, Mompelen, Kabel, Bobbel, Stoppel, &c. &c. 
would never have been corrupted by us to — Double, Treble, 
Humble, Table, Fable, Rabble, Syllable, Parable, Bible, Quibble, 
Vestible, Amble, Dissemble, Scribble, Tremble, &c. Tumble, 
Grumble, Crumble, Rumble, Fumble, Mumble, Cable, Bubble, 
Stubble, &c. &c. But, as B. Jonson did well write the word 
Syllabe, and not Syllable ; so we should have taken care to give 
to all the other words, terminations which would not have 
interfered with this important abbreviation. We should never 
have seen such monsters in our language, as Shaj^eable, Sizeable, 
Coynpanionable, Personable^ Chanceable, Accustomable, Merciable, 
Behoveable, &c. which disgrace the writings of some otherwise 
very excellent authors. 

F. — Do you then propose to reform these abuses ? 

H. — Reform ! God forbid. I tremble at the very name of 
Reform. The Scotch and the English lawyer in conjunction, 
[Dundas] and [PittJ with both the Indies in their patronage, 
point to the Fcce Homo with a sneer; and insultingly bid us — 
'^ Behold the fate of a Reformer ! ^' 

No. With our eyes open to the condition of them all, you 
know that your friend Bosville and I have entered into a strict 
engagement to belong for ever to the established government, 
to the established church, and to the established language of 



^ [" And in her feigning fancie did pourtray 
Him, such as fittest she for love could find, 
Wise, warlike, personable, courteous, and kind." 

Faerie Qiteene, book 3. cant. 4. st. 5.] 

[" More TUNEABLE than lark to shepherd's ear." 

Mids. Night's Dream, act 1. sc. 1. 

" How cam'st thou speakable of mute ? " 

Par. Lost, b. 9. 1. C48.— Ed.I 



CH. VIII.] OF PARTICIPLES. 667 

our country : because tliey are established. Establish what you 
please : Do but establish ; and^ whilst that establishment shall 
last^ we shall be perfectly convinced of its propriety. 

No. I shall venture no further than to exi)lain the nature 
and convenience of these abbreviations. And I venture so far, 
only because our religious and devout [Houses of Parliament] 
have not yet passed an act to restrain me individually to the 
Liturgy (as a sort of half-sacrament) and to forbid my meddling 
with any words out of it. 

F. — However fearful and backward you may be, or pretend 
to be, upon the occasion, I do not think a slow reform either 
dangerous or difficult or unlikely in this particular. Your 
principle is simple and incontestable : — One word or one ter- 
mination should be used with one signification and for one 
purpose.^ 

By the importation of Ble or Ahle into the language, we 
have gained a manifest advantage. Indeed this termination, 
because eminently useful, has become so familiar even to the 
most illiterate of our countrymen ; that by the force of analogy 
alone, they frequently apply it (and with perfect propriety too, 
as to its signification) to words originally English. A custom 
however which, though useful, is not hitherto approved by 
authors of credit : although some of them too have sometimes 
given it the sanction of their example. Thus Chillingworth 
does not disdain to use Knowable, Understandable , Bearable, 
8zc. Many others of our best authors have done the same. 
But, however great the authority which sanctions some of 



^ " Unum vero imprimis observandum est : propterea quod significa- 
torura multitudo uni eidemque voci attributa ssepius est, aut scribentium 
autoritate, aut prodentiura curioso judicio : principem omnium signifi- 
catum indagaii oportere censeo ; ad quern tanquam ad tesseram, signa- 
que caiteras reducere legiones : sed propositis semper caussis, sine quibus 
tarn stulte credimus, quara arroganter profitemur. Fuerunt autem 
doctissimi, multarunique'literarum viri, qui propterea quod nimis multa 
variis observationibus comperta scivissent, multa item significatorum 
monstra uni eidemque voci designarunt. Quorum opera tantum abest 
ut coramoda sit, ut maxime etiam libri adversetur inscriptioni. Nam 
specioso titulo de sermonis proprietate edidissent ; nihil minus quam quod 
l)rofitebantur, efFecere : unius namque vocis una tantum sit significatio 
propria ac princeps : caetera3 aut communes, aut accessoria}, aut etiain 
spuria3." — Scalir/er, de caussk. lib. 113. cap. 192, 193. 



668 OF PARTICIPLES. [PART II. 

these applications of this terminatioiij the practice has never 
been received into approved usage : which yet^ I think, it might 
be universally, and with advantage to the language. 

I think too that we might, gently and by degrees, get rid 
of most of those words where the termination Ble is corruptly 
and improperly employed. For the word Peaceahlej for in- 
stance, we have not the least occasion; Peaceful being alto- 
gether as familiar to us. BeceivaUey Delectable, and Medi- 
cinable have already given way to Deceitful, Delightful, and 
Medicinal. Vengeful and Forceful'^ are perpetually used by 
Dryden ; which will justify us for the banishment of Vengeahle 
and Forcible. For Biasmevole and Laudevole, (Blameabk 
and Laudable,) Drayton, without any aukwardness, uses 
Blameful and Braiseful? I cannot think that Chanceful, 



[" He said, and from his forceful gripe at once 
Forth flew the quiv'ring beam." 

Cowper, Iliad, vol. 1. edit. 2. p. 150. 

'' And hurl'd 

With no eifect, though by a forceful arm." 

Ibid. vol. 2. book 13. p. 29. 

" Who, seeing by the sword and forceful arm 
Of Peleus' son their leader slain." Ibid, book 21. p. 315. 

" With its full pride of hair your head is fraught, 
And keen and forceful strikes your manly thought." 

SymmonSy Life of Milto7i.'j 

' " Thy blameful lines, bespotted so with sin, 
Mine eyes would cleanse, ere they to read begin." 

Draytoti, Heroical Bpistles, Matilda to K. lohn. 

[" Ne may this homely verse of many meanest, 
Hope to escape his venemous despite 
More than my former TVrits, all were they cleanest 
From BLAMEFULL blot." Spenser. 

" For nothing is more blamefull to a knight 
Then the reproch of pride and cruelnesse." 

Faerie Qneene^ book 6. cant. 1. st. 41.] 

" Mildness would better suit with majesty, 
Than rash revenge and rough severity. 
O, in what safety temperance doth rest, 
Obtaining harbour in a sovereign breast : 
Which if so praiseful in the meanest men. 
In powerful kings how glorious is it then." 

UrayloH, Heroical Fj)istleSy Matilda to K. lohn.'] 



CH. VIII.] OF PARTICIPLES. 669 

Changeful^ Yahieful, &c. would be received with mucli diffi- 
culty iu the place of ChanceaUe, Changeable, Vahahle, &c. 
Indeed_, generally speaking, wherever the Italians have applied 
Vole with propriety to their words, we may commonly ex- 
change Ble for FziL I know not indeed what to do with many 
of those words we have received from them, where the Italians 
themselves applied Vole improperly. For AmicJievole, however, 
(Amicable) we might say Friendly: for Sociahle and Reason- 
able; Social, Rational: for Solvable and Colourable; Solvent 
and Apparent. But I fear there are between twenty and thirty 
of them, which the united efforts of all our best authors (if 
authors could ever be united) would not be able to get rid of in 
a century. 

The other corruptions in Ble which you have mentioned, 
such as Dissemble^ Vestible, &c. we might write as they Avere 
formerly written, Dissimule, Vestibule, &c. And as for those 
obstinate corruptions which could not, from their constant, 
familiar and inveterate use, be driven from their usurped 
stations ; the use of them should be avoided as much as pos- 
sible ] they would then be noticed by the meanest etymologists, 
and would cause no equivocation, mistake nor doubt, though 
they were not (as they ought to be) written with their original 
terminations. 

H. — Take notice, I am not a partner in your proposal. The 
corruption of most of these words is now so inveterate, that 
those authors must be very hardy indeed who would risque 
the ridicule of the innovation : and their numbers and merit 
must be great to succeed in any reformation of the language : 
or in any other reformation in England, if Reason and Truth 
are the only bribes they have to offer. 



^ [" So as it should in short space yeeld a plentifull revenue to tlie 
crowne of England ; which now doth but sucke and consume the trea- 
sure thereof, through those unsound plots and ciiangefull orders, 
which are dayly devised for her good, yet never effectually prosecuted 
or performed." — Sjjemer's Vieto of the State of Ireland. Todd's edit. 
1805. p. 508.] 

^ *' The vayne and dissymuled sorowe that rredegund made for the 
kynge." — Fabyan, parte 1. fol. 52. p. 2. col. 1. 



670 OF PARTICIPLES. [PART II. 

F. — What is the termination of your Potential Active Ad- 
jective ? 

H. — We have two terminations in English for this purpose : 
which is one more than enough. And yet our language has 
not hitherto availed itself of this useful abbreviation so exten- 
sively as it ought to have done. It is by no means familiar 
or in common use^ as the Potential Passive Adjective is j but 
is chiefly_, though not intirely^ confined to technical expres- 
sions. 

For this double termination we are obliged both to the Greek 
and to the Roman language. 

" Duas habuere apud Latinos^ (says Scaliger) totidem apud 
Grsecos terminationes ; in Ivus, activam, in His, passivara. 
Sic Grseci atadyn/coVj quod sensu prseditum est ; acaOTjrov, 
quod sensu percipi potest.^' 

We now employ both these abbreviations in English ; as 
Sensible, Sensitive, &c. Of the former abbreviation we have 
already spoken. 

At the dawn of learning in this country^ those who became 
acquainted with the Latin and French authors_, perceived (and 
especially when they came to translate them or to repeat any 
thing after them) a convenient short method of expression in 
those languages^ with which their own could not furnish them. 
Finding therefore this peculiarity, and not knowing whence it 
arose ; as they proceeded to be more familiar with tliose lan- 
guages, they borrowed the whole Latin or French words in 
which the abbreviation they wanted was contained : instead 
of using their own periphrastic idiom as formerly, or forming 
(as they should have done) a correspondent abbreviation in 
words of their own language. And thus, by incorporating 
those words, they obtained jMriiallT/ (for it extended no further 
than the very words adopted) that sort of abbreviation to our 
language which it had not before. 

Wilkins was well aware of the benefit of this method of 
speech, and proposed to give this advantage to his F/iiloso- 
p/iical Language, by the means of a Transcendental particle ; 
though he thought it concerned chiefly the copiousness and 
elegancy of a language, and mentions its use in the ^'abbre- 
viating of language" only as a secondary consideration. He 



I 



CH. VIIT.] OF PARTICIPLES. 671 

likewise saw plainly that the manner in which instituted lan- 
guages originally obtained this end, was by — ^^ such a kind of 

composition as doth alter the terminations of words/^ He 

knew too by his own experience (for he was forced to coin 
them) that ^' we have not actually such variety of words '^ as he 
wanted : and he declared it to proceed from " the defect of 
language/' He should have said our language, and not lan- 
guage in general : for though it is true of our language, it is not 
true of the Latin nor of the Greek. For ^^that kind of compo- 
sition which alters the terminations of words " being nothing 
more than the addition of a word ; and the addition which the 
Romans and Greeks made for this purpose, being a word of 
their own language, whose Foi'ce was consequently known to 
them ; they could, upon occasion, add it to any verb they 
pleased, and its signification would be evident to all. For, though 
icr^f? and Vis by frequent use and repetition were corrupted 
and became in composition iKo<; and ivus in this abbreviation ; 
yet the analogy which this termination would bear to the other 
words of the same sort, would justify the application of the same 
termination to any word where they might clause to employ it. 
But that is not the case with us : for, as we have not obtained 
this abbreviation by " that kind of composition which alters the 
terminations of words " (i. e. by adding to one known word 
of our own, another known word of our own, expressive of the 
added circumstance ;) but only by adopting some of the ahbre- 
mated words themselves from other languages, we cannot so 
easily supply our defects and extend the advantage : unless we 
go on borrowing fresh abbreviated words, ready made to our 
hands, from the same som-ces. 

And this will appear plainly to any one who will please 
to examine our language : for we have not one single word of 
Anglo-Saxon origin, whose Potential Mood Active is Adjectived, 
Some attempts indeed have been made towards it, but with- 
out success : for Wilkins's " unwalkative '' (for — one w/io cannot 
wal/c,) and other words of the same coinage, have never passed 
current amongst us.^ And it is well for the language that they 



^ [Mr. Richardson observes that Mr. Tooke had forgotten the word 
Talkative. — Eu.] 



672 OP PARTICIPLES. [part II. 

have notj and that the greater part of these new-coined words 
has been rejected : because the persons who coined them being 
commonly affected_, and always ignorant of the force of the 
termination they employed^ would very greatly have injured 
and confounded the language by an improper application of the 
termination. As Wilkins himself did^ when he barbarously 
applied it to the Noun quantity ; and talked of " Quantitative 
pronouns/^ &c. Had this word succeeded_, we should soon have 
had Quidditative in our language too ; and then the meta- 
physician would have triumphed over the last remains of 
common sense amongst us^ and would exultingly have told us, 
that — " Essentia est primus rerum conceptus constitutivus vel 
quidditativus ; cujus ope cgetera, quae de re aliqua dicuntur, 
demonstrari possunt.^^ 

All the ahhreviations which we enjoy of this kind, (i. e. the 
Potential Active Adjective) are either borrowed from the Latin, 
and then they terminate in Ive ; as Purgative, Vomitive, Ope- 
rative, &c. or they are borrowed from the Greek, and then they 
terminate in Ic ; as Cathartic, Emetic, Energetic, &c. 

Hence we have at length (for it was not done all at once, but 
by slow degrees,) adopted into our language such words as the 
following j 

From the Latin — Aperitive, Ablative, Crescive, Coercive, Con- 
secutive, Dative, Detersive, Desiccative, Expletive, Eruptive, 
Genitive, Inceptive, Imperative, Intellective, Inchoative, Laxative, 
Lucrative, Lenitive, Negative, Nuncupative, Optative, Passive, 
Progressive, Vrerogative, Responsive, Solutive, Sanative, Sensitive, 
Susceptive, Transitive, Vocative, Visive, &c. &c.^ 

From the Greek — Analytic, Apologetic, Caustic, Character- 
istic, Cathartic, Cryptic, Critic, Cosmetic, Dialectic, Didactic, 
Diuretic, Despotic, Drastic, Elastic, Emetic, Energetic, Fan- 
tastic, Gymnastic, Hypothetic, Narcotic, Paralytic, Peripatetic, 
Periphrastic, Prognostic, Prophylactic, Plastic, Pathetic, Prophetic, 
Syllogistic, Styptic, Sceptic, Synthetic, Sympathetic, &c. 

I have here mentioned only some of the most common words 



^ [" I will converse with iron-witted fools 

And unrcsjH'cfive hoy %.""— Rich. HI act 4. sc. 2. — Ed.] 



CH. VIII.] OF PARTICIPLES. 673 

of this sort, and those where we have borrowed only the 
ahhreviation, without taking also into our language the same 
unahhreviated verb : by which may appear more plainly the 
reason of the adoption. 

F. — I see the use and convenience of this abbreviation, 
which resembles the former. And I perceive too that you 
thereby gain an explanation of some more abstract Nouns. A 
Critic is (some one, any one) who can discern. A Provocative, 
a Palliative^ a Motive is (something, any thing) whatever 7nay 
p'ovoTcCy may palliatCj may move. So an Invective, an Incen- 
tive, &c. But this explanation will not serve for a Missive, or 
a Relative. 

II. — It will not serve for corruptions. And wherever it will 
not serve, we may be sure that the terminations are corruptly 
and improperly applied. The French have abused these ter- 
minations in a most immoderate degree j whose corruptions of 
this abbreviation we have but partially followed. Missive (in 
this use of it) is an old French corruption, adopted by Shake- 
speare and others,^ and even by Dryden, who uses it for 
Missile (i. e. Missihile) ; but I think it is no longer current in 
English. So Imaginative and Opinionative have formerly 
been used by Bacon and others ; but are no longer in 
approved use with us. Relative has indeed, within my memory, 
by a ridiculous affectation of false and unfounded accuracy, 
crept forward into improper use, to the exclusion of Relation. 

^ " Les Atheniens aians surpris des com-riers du roy Plnlippiis, ne 
voulurent oncqiies soiiffrir qu'on ouvrist une missive qui estoit suscripte, 
a la royne Olympiade sa femme." — Aviyot, Instructions pour ceulx qui 
manient affaires d' Estai. 

Thus translated by Philemon Holland, contemporary with Shake- 
speare, who merely translated Amyot : for in the original, it is ^ttkito- 
\t]v eiriyeypaij.fievrjv OXvfxinaBi.. " The Athenians having surprized king 
Philips posts and courriers, would never suffer one of their letters missive 
to be broke open which had the superscription, to Queen Olympias my 
wife." 

"Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the 
king, who all-hail'd me Thane of Cawdor." — Macbeth, act 1. sc. 5. p. 
134. 

" I wrote to you, when rioting in Alexandria, you 
Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts 
Did gibe my missive out of audience." 

Antliony and Cleopatra, p. 346. 
2 X 



674 OF PARTICIPLES. [PART II. 

Certain precise gentlemen will no longer permit us to call 
our kindred our Relations : No^ but — our Relatives. Why ? 
What is the meaning of the termination On, and the meaning 
of the termination Ive, which qualifies the one^ and dis- 
qualifies the other? They have both appropriate meanings: 
without the knowledge of which how can these gentlemen 
determine their proper use ? If they say, they have not appro- 
priate meanings ; by what rule do they prefer the one to the 
other? They who do not take what they find in use, but 
propose a change, are bound to give a reason for it. But, I 
believe, they will be as little able to justify their innovation, 
as Sir Thomas More would have been to explain the foundation 
of his ridiculous distinction between nay and no, and between 
YEA and yes/ 

^ " I woulde not here note by the way, that Tyndal here translateth 
no for NAY : for it is but a trifle and mistaking of the Englishe word : 
sauing that ye shoulde see that he, whych in two so plain Englishe 
wordes, and so coramen as is naye and no, can not tell when he should 
take the tone, and wlien the tother, is not, for translating into Englishe, 
a man very mete. 

" For the use of those two wordes in aunswering to a question, is 
this. NO aunswereth the question framed by the affirmatiue. As for 
ensample; If a manne should aske Tindall hymselt'e, — Ys an heretike 
mete to translate Holy Scripture into Englishe ? Lo, to thys question, 
if he will aunswere trew Englishe, he muste aunswere nay, and not 
no. 

" But and if the question be asked hym thus lo : — Is not an here- 
tique mete to translate Holy Scripture into English ? To this ques- 
tion lo, if he wil aunswer true English, he must aunswere no, and 
not NAY. 

"And a lyke difference is there betwene these two aduerbes, ye and 
YES. For if the question bee framed unto Tindall by the affirmatiue in 
thys fashion: — If an heretique falsely translate the Newe Testament 
into Englishe, to make hys false heresyes seeme the worde of Godde; 
be hys bookes worthy to be burned ? To this question, asked in thys 
wyse, yf he wil aunswere true Englishe, he must aunswere ye, and not 

YES. 

• " But nowe if the question be asked hym thus lo by the negat'ue : — 
If an heretike falsely translate the Newe Testament into Englishe, to 
make hys false heresyes seme the Word of God ; be not his bokes well 
worthy to be burned ? To thys question in thys f^ishion framed, if he 
wyll aunswere trew Englishe, he may not aunswere ye, but he must 
aunswere yes ; and say, yes mary be they, botlie the translation and the 
ti'anslatour, and all that zvyll holde wijth them.'^ — Sir T. More^8 Workes, 
Confutacion of Tyndale, p. 448. 



CH, VIII.] OF PARTICIPLES. 675 

But these petty fopperies will pass away of themselves^ and 
when the whim is ovei% we shall all find our Belations again as 
safe and sound as ever. 

There certainly are many other corrupt applications of Ive, 
and some few of Ic. But we may avoid the detail; for they 
are all easily curable : and, I fear, I may be thought to have 
already dwelt too tediously on particular words and instances. 

F. — The Greek and the Latin then, it appears, have both 
these same abbreviations by means of terminations. And the 
Latin, being originally Greek, must be supposed to have re- 
ceived them from the Greek. Accordingly Scaliger has told 
us that the Greek lko^ became the Latin Ivms, by the insertion 
of the ^olic digamma. But he has not shewn, and I cannot 
discover, whence the Latin has its termination Bills. In 
aLcr67}T-LH:o<; and sensit-ivuSj there is sufficient similarity in the 
terminations to admit of Scaliger's supposition. But in aco-6r)T-o<; 
and sensi'bilis, where is the similarity ? Whence then had the 
Romans this latter termination of JBilis / Surely not from the 
Greek. 

II. — Whatever the Latin has not from the Greek, it has 
from the Goth. And this runs throughout the whole of the 
language. I do not assert however, but I say I believe, that 
the termination of the Latin Potential Passive Adjective is the 
Anglo-Saxon or Gothic !S!bal, Bobur. And this is also our 
English word able ] which has nothing to do with Hahilis, 
whence our etymologists erroneously derive it : for there is no 
agreement whatever of signification, though there is a resem- 
blance of sound, between Ilalilis and Ahle. And Junius upon 
this word says truly — '^ Anglos vero vocabulum able non debere 
abnepotibus Romuli, planum statim fiet inspicientibus locum 
Csedraonis, 12. 25. ubi Diabolo primos nostros parentes tentanti 
hsec verba tribuit : 

^^ Dob het me. on ^yj'ne f I'S jzapan. 

het 'Ssec ^u "Sij-j-ef. ofsetej- sete. 

cpse^ ^ac Sin a b a 1 anb cpsefC. 

anb 'Sin mob j^ejia. 

mapa pupbe." &c. [Ed. Thorpe, p. 32.] 

[Deus voluit mc iter hoc ingredi, jussit ut fructum hunc 

2x2 



676 OV PARTICIPLES. [PART 11. 

comederes ; dixit ingenii tui irapetum^ et scientiam^ ipsumque 
adeo mentis tuse intellectum auctiorem fore/^ &c.] 

F. — We have still two other of your abbreviations to examine. 
What you mean by Future Tense Adjective I can easily under- 
stand. You mean only what we are accustomed to call the 
Future Participle. But of your Official Mood I have no notion 
whatever ; having never heard of any such thing before. 

H, — No. Nor, if I could have found any better title for it, 
should you have heard it now. I do not like it myself; but I 
am driven to it by distress. I want a term for that Mood or 
Manner of using the verb, by which we might couple the 
notion of duty with it ; by which we might, at the same time 
and in conjunction with it, express ra Beovra, the things which 
ought to be done and the things which ought not to be done. 
Observe, if you please, that I am not the first in calling this a 
Mood of the verb. The most antient Grammarians did assign 
such a Mood to the verb : and they termed it Modzim partici- 
pialem. But this term will by no means suit our language : 
for, having no cases, we can have no participles. The term is 
besides inadequate and faulty in other respects ; which I for- 
bear to mention, that we may not be involved in that fruitless 
and endless contention concerning Gerunds and the Participle 
in Dus kc. which relates not to our language; and in which 
the combatants have fought by citations from different authors, 
and not by any arguments drawn from the nature of speech, or 
the use and convenience of words in the communication of our 
thoughts. 

Indeed, for any benefit that our language has hitherto re- 
ceived by these two latter abbreviations, I might well have 
forborne to mention them. But I speak of them, not as pos- 
sessing them, but as important instruments which we should 
have in our language, and may have if we please. We stand 
in great need of them ; and our authors have only to reach out 
their hands and gather them : they are abundant enough in the 
Latin. 

The words of this sort, which we have hitherto adopted, 
are barely these — legend, reverend, dividend^ prebend, 
MEMORANDUM. Wc cau hardly be said to have adopted deo- 



i 



OH. VIII.] OF PARTICIPLES. 677 

DAND, MULTIPLICAND^ SUBTRAHEND, and CREDENDA;^ i. 6. Which 

ought to be given to God, Which ought to he multiplied, Which ought 
to he subtracted J Which ought to he believed. 

The first of these, legend, which means — That which 
ought to he read — is, from the early misapplication of the term 
by impostors, now used by us as if it meant — That which 
ought to he laughed at. And so it is explained in our dic- 
tionaries. 

How soon REVEREND — i. c. WMch ought to be revered, — will 
be in the same condition, though now with great propriety 
applied to our judges and our clergy, I pretend not to deter- 
mine. It will depend upon themselves. But if ever a time 
shall arrive when, through abject servility and greediness, they 
become distinguished as the principal instruments of pillage and 
oppression ; it is not the mitre and the coif, nor the cant of 
either of them, that will prevent reverend from becoming like 
LEGEND, a term of the utmost reproach and contempt. 

Dividend — That which ought to he divided — is perpetually 
abused : whilst each man calls the share of the dividend which 
he has received, his dividend ; though he means to keep it all 
to himself. 

Prebend — Bes prahenda — is now commonly applied to the 
person receiving it, and not to — That which ought to he afforded 
to him. 

Memorandum alone stands clear from abuse, and free from 
danger. — That which ought to he remembered. 

F. — I perceive that we cannot, without this Official Passive 
Adjective, have such Substantives as a legend, a dividend, 
a PREBEND, and a memorandum ; a deodand, a multi- 
plicand, a SUBTRAHEND ; but, in other respects, we have a 
method of expressing the same thing. Do we not say — This 
book is to he read with attention : That man is to be revered for 
his integrity : The revenue is not to he divided amongst thieves : 
Support is to he afforded to the worthy : That circumstance is to 
he remem,hered ? 

H. — Yes truly, we have such a method ; but we have no 
great reason to be proud of it : for nothing can be more auk- 
ward and ambiguous. The use of such a method of speech 

^ [" Agenda, and Credcnda." Sec Encyclopcedia Britannlca.'] 



678 OF PARTICIPLES. [PART II. 

could only arise from our want of these three abbreviations, 
viz. the Potential Passive Adjective, the Official Passive Ad- 
jective_, and the Future Tense Adjective : for this expression 
— Is to, or Is to he — is all that we have to supply the place of 
each of those three.^ 

The following passage of Boethius, lib. 1. prosa 3. 

*' Quod si nee Anaxagoree fugain, nee Soeratis venenum, nee Zenonis 
tormenta, quoniam sunt peregrina, novisti ; at Canios, at Seneeas, at 
Soranos, quorum nee pervetusta nee ineelebris memoria est, scire po- 
tuisti. Quos nihil aliud in cladem detraxit, nisi quod nostris moribus 
instituti, studiis improborum dissimillimi videbantur. (i. e. "Their talents 
were of a peculiar kind and blended with a considerable alloy of eccen- 
tricity.'') Itaque nihil est quod admirere, si in hoc vitae salo circum- 
flantibus agitemur procellis, quibus hoc maxime propositum est, pessi- 
mis displicere. Quorum quidem tametsi est numerosus exercitus, 
SPERNENDUS tameu est j quoniam nullo duce regitur, sed errore tantum 
temere ac passim lymphante raptatur : " 

is thus translated by Chaucer, fol. 222. p. 1. col. 1. 

" So if thou haste not knowen the exilynge of Anaxagoras, ne the 
empoysoning of Socrates, ne the turmentes of Zeno, for they weren 
straungers, yet mightest thou haue knowen the Seneeas, the Canios, 
and the Soranos : of whiche folke the renome is neyther ouer olde ne 
unsolempne. The whiche men nothyng els ne brought to the deth, but 
only for they were enformed of my maners, and semeden most unlyke to 
the studies of wicked folke. And for thy thou oughtest nat to wondren, 
though that I in the bitter see be driuen with tempestes blowing aboute. 
In the which thys is my moste purpose, that is to sayne, to displeseu 
wicked men. Of whiche shrewes al be the hooste neuer so great. It is to 
dispise ; for it is not gouerned with no leader of reason, but it is rauyshed 
onely by fletynge erroure folily and lightlye." 

The following from Virgil, 

" Inpandum, regina, jubes renovare dolorem," 

is thus translated by Douglas, 

" Thy desir, lady, is 

Kenewing of TJntellybil sorow, I wys.'* 

This was not the bishop^ s fault, but the penury of the language. 

^ [See the Notes to page 266, where the passage from Boethius has 
been already given. See also a Note on the Anglo-Saxon Derivative 
or Future Lijinitive, and Present Participle, subjoined to the Editor's 
Preface. — En.l 



i 



CH. VIII.] OF PARTICIPLES. 679 

Untellyhil means — What cannot he uttered. But Yirgil would 
not say Ineffabile, when ^neas immediately proceeds to tell 
the tale; but he says Infandum, — That which ought not to he 
uttered : which yet, to oblige the queen, he proceeds to tell. 

Dryden has endeavoured to avoid the word which the lan- 
guage would not permit him to translate : 

*' Great queen, what you command me to relate, 
Eenews the sad remembrance of our fate." 

In the Old Batchelorj when Nol Bluffe had been kicked, he 
says, (act 3. sc. 9.) 

" Bluff. By heav'n, His not to he put up. 

Sir Jo. What, bully ? 

Bluff. The affront. 

S)ir Jo. No, agad, no more 'tis ; for that 's put up ah-eady." 

Is not to he put up, or. Is not to he home, may equally mean 
either Intolerahile, or Intolerandam, or Intoleratur.um : That 
ivhich cannot he home, or That which ought not to he home, or 
That which will not he home hereafter. BluflP meant either 
Intolerahile or Intolerandwn ; but Sir Joseph agrees with Bluff 
in the sense of Intoleraturum, because the kicking was not a 
matter defuturo, but already past. 

F. — I see it. The jest is owing to the penury of our lan- 
guage, which gives room for the equivocation. 

But if we are so scantily provided with words of this Official 
Passive Adjective ; we are still worse off respecting the Future 
Tense Adjective : for I cannot recollect a single instance of it in 
English, except this solitary word Future. 

H. — Yes, one more ; Venture or Adventtire. Which, though 
it appears as a substantive, means merely (any thing, some- 
thing, aliquid) Venturum. I am not sure that Judicature and 
Legislature ^ were not originally used in the language with pro- 
priety. 

It is a reproach to the English and the French philosophers, 
that both their languages should still want these two most 



^ [Legem ferre, or rogare, was, amongst the Romans, to propose a 
law. Legem sciacere, was the act of the people, i. e. to give their con- 
sent and authority to the law proposed. 

A Lcgidaior is therefore only the Pruposer of laws.] 



680 OF PARTICIPLES. [PART II. 

useful abbreviations. And it is tbe more reproachful^ because 
the reason is obvious. We want them; because the French 
(whom we have copied) are without them : — and the French 
have them not ; because the Italians (whom the French copied), 
by ignorance and carelessness, and by confounding their 
own terminations, had lost the benefit of these abbreviations. 
Surely either our arms are now long enough to reach across 
those languages and snatch them at once immediately from the 
Latin ; or our • sober ingenuity bold enough to form them for 
ourselves in our own language by a discreet and well-weighed 
imitation. Can any thing be more lame and aukward than 
our — Ahoiit to he, and Abotit to come, and Ahout to do, &c. ? Or 
our equivocal — Is to he, and Is to come, and Is to do, &c. for 
Futurus, YentuTus, Facturus, &c. ? 

If custom and habit may, in some measure, have blinded us 
to the inadequacy of these expressions ; we cannot avoid per- 
ceiving plainly their deformity, when we notice how our old 
translators first struggled to express this Future abbreviation, 
and to what shift they were driven, 

" Generaciouns of eddris, who she wide to you to fle fro wraththe to J 
comynge?" — Matt. cap. 3. v. 7. " 

" Art ihou tliat art to comynge^ ether abiden we an other ? " — lUd. 
cap. 11. V. 3. 

" And if yee wolen resceyue, he is Elie that is to comynge.''^ — Ibid. 
V. 14. 

" This it was whom I seide, he that is to corny nge aftir rae, is maad 
bifore me." — John, cap. 1. v. 15. 

" Ether the world, ether lyf, ether deeth, ether thingis present, ether 
thingis to comynge.'" — 1 Corinth, cap. 3. v. 23. 

" Ihesu that delyueride us fro wraththe to comynge.^^ — 1 Thessal. 
cap. 1. v. 10. 

" Agabus signyfiede by the spirit, a greet hungir to corny nge in al 
the rowndnesse of erthis." — Bedis, cap. 11. v. 28. 



^ [This mode of expression seems to be the representative of the 
Anglo-Saxon Future Infinitive ; thus in Matt. xi. 3. &c., for WyclifFe's 
^^ thou that art to corny nge'''' we have in the Saxon "])u J?e "co curaenne 
eajit : " if so, it was no ahift of the translators, but an ancient form in 
common use. 

See page 266 ; and the Notes subjoined to the Editor's Prefage. 
—Ed.] 



CH. VIII.] OF PARTICIPLES. 681 

" Crist Ihesu that is to demynge the quyke and deed." — 2 Tlmoth. 
cap. 4. V. 1. 

" He ordeynide a day in whiche he is to demynge the world in equyte." 
— Bedis, cap. 17. v. 31. 

" Bi feith he that is clepid Abraham, obeide for to go out in to a place 
which he vjas to takynge in to eritage." — Ebrewis, cap. 11. v. 8. 

" Eorsothe whanne Eroude was to hringynge forth hym, in that nigt 
Petir was slepynge bitwixe tweyne knytis." — Bedis, cap. 13. v. 6. 

" Thei fallinge on the nek of Poul, kissiden him, -sorewynge moost 
in the word that he seide : for thei weren no more to seynge his face, and 
thei led den him to the ship." — Ihid. cap. 20. v. 37, 38. 

" Sotheli there the ship was to piittyng out the charge." 

Ibid. cap. 21. v. 3. 

"Centurioun wente to the tribune and tolde to hym, seyinge, what 
art thou to doynge ? forsothe this man is a citeseyn romayn." — Ibid. 
cap. 22. V. 26. 

" Anoon thei that weren to tormentinge him, departeden awey from 
hym."— /5f^. v. 29. 

"Sum of the lewis gaderiden hem, and maden a vow, seiynge hem 
nether to etynge nether drinkynge, til thei slowen Poul." — Ibid. cap. 23. 
V. 12. 

" I gesse me blessid at thee, whanne I am to defendynge me this day, 
moost thee wytynge alle thingis that ben at lewis." — Ibid. cap. 26. 
V. 2, 3. 

"Drede thou nothing of these whiche thou art to suffrynge : lo 
the deuel is to sendynge sume of you in to prisoun." — Apocal. cap. 2. 
V. 10. 

" The dragon stode bifore the womman that was to beringe child ; that 
whanne she hadde born child, he shulde deuoure hir sone." — Ibid. 
cap. 12. V. 4. 

The aukwardness of the above substitutions for the Future 
Participle (or Future Tense Adjective) will not, I believe, be 
disputed. I leave you to compare them with the more modern 
successive versions of the same passages, and I think you will 
find the latter equally inadequate. 

Now in regard to all these which I have mentioned, and 
many other abbreviations which I have not yet mentioned ; our 
modern English authors (not being aware of what the language 
had gained) have been much divided in their opinions ; whether 
we should praise or censure those who, by adopting a great 
number of foreign words and incorporating them into the 



683 OF PARTICIPLES. [PART II. 

old Anglo-Saxon languagCj^ have by degrees produced the 
modern English. Whilst some have called this Enriching, 
others have called it Defoi'ming the original language of our 
ancestors : which these latter affirm to have been sufficiently- 
adapted to composition to have expressed with equal advantage, 
propriety and precision, by words from its own source, all that 
we can now do by our foreign helps. But in their declama- 
tions (for they cannot be called arguments) on this subject, 
it is evident that, on both sides, they confined themselves 
to the consideration merely of co7nplex terms, and never dreamed 
of the abbreviations in the manner of signification of words. 
Which latter has however been a much more abundant 
cause of borrowing foreign words than the former. And 
indeed it is true that almost all the complex terms (merely as 
such) which we have adopted from other languages, might 
be, and many of them were, better expressed in the Anglo- 
Saxon : — I mean, better for an Anglo-Saxon : because more 
intelligible to him, and more homogeneous with the rest of his 
language. Yet I am of opinion (but on different ground from 
any taken by the declaimers on either side) that those, who by 
thus borrowing have produced our present English speech, de- 
serve from us, but in a very different degree, both thanks and 
censure. Great thanks, in that they have introduced into the 
English some most useful ahhreviations in manner of significa- 
tion ; which the Anglo-Saxon, as well as all the other North- 
ern languages, wanted : and some censure, in that they have 
done this incompletely, and in an improper manner. The fact 
certainly is, that our predecessors did not themselves know 
what they were doing ; any more than their successors seem 
to have known hitherto the real importance and benefit of what 
has been done. And of this the Grammars and Philosophy 
both of antients and moderns are a sufficient proof. An over- 
sight much to be deplored : for I am strongly persuaded (and 
I think I have good reason to be so) that had the Greek and 
Latin Grammarians known and explained the nature and in- 
trinsic value of the riches of their own language, neither would 
their descendants have lost any of those advantages, nor would 
the languages of Europe have been at this day in the corrupt 
and deficient state in which we, more and less, find them. For 
those languages which have borrowed these abbreviations. 



CH. VITI.] OP PARTICIPLES. 683 

would have avoided the partiality and patchwork, as well as the 
corruptions and improprieties with which they now abound ; 
and those living languages of Europe which still want these ad- 
vantages wholly, would long ere this have intirely supplied their 
defects. 

F. — It seems to me that you rather exaggerate the import- 
ance of these abbreviations. Can it be of such mighty conse- 
quence to gain a little time in communication ? 

H. — Even that is important. But it rests not there. A 
short, close, and compact method of speech, answers the pur- 
pose of a map upon a reduced scale ; it assists greatly the com- 
prehension of our understanding: and, in general reasoning, 
frequently enables us, at one glance, to take in very numerous 
and distant important relations and conclusions, which would 
otherwise totally escape us. But this objection comes to me 
with an ill grace from you, who have expressed such frequent 
nausea and disgust at the any-lengthian Lord with his numerous 
strings, that excellent political swimmer ; whose tedious reasons, 
you have often complained, are as " two graines of wheat hid in 
two bushels of chaflPe." 

And here, if you please, we will conclude our discussion for 
the present. 

F. — No. If you finish thus, you will leave me much unsatis- 
fied ; nor shall I think myself fairly treated by you. 

You have told me that a Verb is (as every word also must 
be) a Noun ; but you added, that it is also something more : and 
that the title of Ferd was given to it, on account of that distin- 
guishing something more than the mere Nouns convey. You 
have then proceeded to the simple Verl adjectived, and to the 
difierent adjectived Moods, and to the different adjectived Tenses 
of the verb. But you have not aU the while explained to me 
what you mean by the naked simple Verb unadjectived. Nor 
have you uttered a single syllable concerning that something 
which the naked Verb unattended by Mood, Tense, Number, Per- 
son, and Gender, (which last also some languages add to it) sig- 
nifies More or Besides the mere noun. 

What is the Verb ? What is that peculiar differential circum- 
stance which, added to the definition of a Noun, constitutes the 
Verb ? 



\ 



684 OF PARTICIPLES. [PART II. 

Is the Verb, 1. " Dictio variabilis, quse significat actionem 
aut passionem/^ 

Or, 2. ^^ Dictio variabilis per modos." 

Or, 3. " Quod adsignificat tempus sine casu.^^ 

Or, 4. " Quod agere, pati, vel esse, significat. 

Or, 5. '^ Nota rei sub tempore." 

Or, 6. '^ Pars orationis prsecipua sine casu." 

Or, 7. " An Assertion." 

Or, 8. " Nihil significans, et quasi nexus et copula, ut verba 
alia quasi animaret." 

Or, 9. ^' Un mot declinable indeterminatif." 

Or, 10. " Un mot qui presente a Tesprit un etre indetermine, 
designe seulement par Tidee generale de ^existence sous une re- 
lation a une modification." 

Or, 11. 

H — A truce, a truce. — I know you are not serious in laying 
this trash before me : for you could never yet for a moment 
bear a negative or a quasi in a definition. I perceive whither 
you would lead me; but I am not in the humour at present 
to discuss with you the meaning of Mr. Harris's — ^^ What- 
ever a thing may Be, it must first of necessity Be, before it can 
possibly Be any thing else." With which precious jargon he 
commences his account of the Verb. No, No. We wiU leave 
off" here for the present. It is true that my evening is now fully 
come, and the night fast approaching; yet, if we shall have a 
tolerably lengthened twilight, we may still perhaps find time 
enough for a further conversation on this subject : And finally, 
(if the times will bear it) to apply this system of Language to 
all the diff'erent systems of Metaphysical (i. e. verbal) Imposture. 



THE END. 



APPENDIX. 



A LETTEH TO JOHN DUNNING, Esq. 

By Mr. HOKNE. 



Vengono di quelle occasioui clie tutto serve : 

E dice il proverbio a questo proposito ; 

Impare I' arte, e mettila da parte. GOLDONI. 



P-RINTF.B 1778. 
Deau Sir, 

It would be worse than superfluous in rae even to hint to you why none 
of the reasons given for over-ruling my Exeeption are satisfactory to my 
mind. But there is something very curious in the precedent of the King 
and Lawley, which, I am persuaded, neither those who took the Excep- 
tion, nor perhaps the Judges who decided that case (though the reason 
they gave destroys the effect of the precedent towards me), nor the Judge 
who quoted it, were aware of. 

As it is intirely out of the line of the profession, and its novelty may 
perhaps afford you some entertainment ; as it is an offering worthy your 
acceptance, and cannot be presented to you by any other hand, I entreat 
your forgiveness for laying it before you. 

The precedent of that supposed omission is produced to justify a real 
omission in the information against me : when indeed there was no 
omission in the information against Lawley. But the Averment said 
to be omitted, was, not only substantially, but literally made. 

"The exception taken was, that it was not positively averred that 
Crooke was indicted ; it was only laid that she sciens that Crooke had 
been indicted and was to be tried for forgery, did so and so." 

— " She knowing that Crooke had been indicted for forgery, did so 
and so." — 

That is, literally thus, 

— *' Crooke had been indicted for forgery," (there is the averment 
literally made) — " She, knowing that, did so and so." — 

Such, Sir, is, in all cases, the unsuspected construction, not only in 
our own but in every language in the world, where the conjunction that 
(or some equivalent word) is employed. I speak it confidently, because 



686 APPENDIX. 

I know (and, with Lord Monboddo's permission, a priori) that it must 
be so ; and I have likewise tried it in a great variety of languages, 
antient as well as modern, Asiatic as well as European. 

I am very well aware. Sir, that, should I stop here, what I have now 
advanced would seem very puerile ; and a mere quibbling trick or play 
upon words ; founded upon the fortuitous similarity of sound between 
THAT the article or pronoun, as it is called, and that the conjunction : 
between which two, though they have the same sound, it is universally 
imagined that there is not any the smallest correspondence or similarity 
of signification. But I deny that any words change their nature in this 
manner, so as to belong sometimes to one part of speech and sometimes 
to another, from the difi^erent manner of using them. I never could 
perceive any such fluctuation in any word whatever : though I know it 
is a general charge brought erroneously against words of almost every 
denomination. But it is all error ; arising from the false measure which 
has been taken of almost every sort of words ; whilst the words them- 
selves continue faithfully and steadily attached, each to the standard 
under which it was originally enlisted. As the word that does, which, 
however used and employed, and however named and classed, always 
retains one and the same signification. Unnoticed abbreviation in con- 
struction, and difference of position, have caused this appearance of 
fluctuation ; and (since the time of- the elder Stoics) have misled the 
grammarians and philosophers of all languages both antient and modern : 
for in all they make the same mistake. 

If I should ask any of these gentlemen, whether it is not strange 
and improper that we should, without any reason or necessity, employ 
in English the same word for two different meanings and purposes ; 
would he not readily acknowledge that it was wrong, and that he could 
see no reason for it, but many reasons against it ? Well, then, is it not 
more strange, that this same impropriety, in this same case, should run 
through ALL languages ; and that they should all use an Article, 
without any reason, unnecessarily, and improperly, for this mme Con- 
junction ; with which it has, as is pretended, no correspondence nor 
similarity of signification ? Yet this is certainly done in all languages ; 
as any one may easily find by inquiry. Now does not the uniformity and 
universality of this supposed mistake and unnecessary impropriety (in . 
languages which have no connexion with each other) naturally lead us 
to suspect that this usage of the article may perhaps be neither mistaken 
nor improper ; but that the mistake may lie only with us, who do not 
understand it ? I will make use of the leisure which Imprisonment 
affords me, to examine a few Instances ; and, still keeping the same 
signification of the sentences, shew, by a resolution of their construction, 
tlie trutli of mv assertion. 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING. 687 

Example. 

" I wish you to believe that I would not wilfully hurt a fly." 
Eesolution. 

"I would not wilfully hurt a fly, I wish you to believe that" (as- 
sertion). 

Example. 

" You say that the same arm which when contracted can lift , 

when extended to its utmost reach will not be able to raise : 

You mean that we should never forget our situation, and that we 
should be prudently contented to do good within our sphere, where it 
can have an eft'ect : and that we should not be misled, even by a virtuous 
benevolence and public spirit, to waste ourselves in fruitless eftbrts 
beyond our power of influence." 

Eesolution. 

" The same arm which when contracted can lift , when extended 

to its utmost reach will not be able to raise : you say that. We 

should never forget our situation ; you mean that. And we should be 
contented to do good within our own sphere, where it can have an effect ; 
you mean that. And we should not be misled even by a virtuous bene- 
volence and public spirit to waste ourselves in fruitless eftbrts beyond our 
power of influence ; you mean that." 

Example. 

*' They who have well considered that kingdoms rise or fall, and that 
their inhabitants are happy or miserable, not so much from any local or 
accidental advantages or disadvantages ; but accordingly as they are well 
or ill governed ; may best determine how far a viiiuous mind can be 
neutral in politics." 

Eesolution. 

" Kingdoms rise or fall, not so much from any local or accidental 
advantages or disadvantages, but accordingly as they are well or ill 
governed ; they who have considered that (maxim) may best determine 
how far a virtuous mind can be neutral in politics. And the inhabitants 
of kingdoms are happy or miserable not so much from any local or 
accidental advantages or disadvantages, but accordingly as they are well 
or ill governed; they who have considered that, may best determine 
how far a virtuous mind can be neutral in politics." 

Example. 
" Thieves rise by night, that they may cut men's throats." 

Eesolution. 
"Thieves may cut men's throats, (for) that (purpose) they rise by 
night." 



688 APPENDIX. 

After the same manner may all sentences be resolved, where the sup- 
posed conjunction that (or its equivalent) is employed: and by such 
resolution it will always be discovered to have merely the same force and 
signification, and to be in fact nothing else but an Article. 

And this is not the case in English alone, where that is the only con- 
junction of the same signification which we employ in this manner ; but 
this same method of resolution takes place in those languages also which 
have different conjunctions for this same purpose : for the original of my 
last example (where ut is employed, and not the Latin neuter article 
QUOD,) will be resolved in the same manner. 

" Ut jugulent homines surgunt de nocte latrones." 

Por though Sanctius, who struggled so hard to withdraw quod from 
amongst the conjunctions, still left ut amongst them without molesta- 
tion ; yet is ut no other than the Greek article 6tl, adopted for this 
conjunctive purpose by the Latins, and by them originally written uti : 
the o being changed into u from that propensity which both the antient 
Eomans had and the modern Italians still have, upon many occasions, to 
pronounce even their own o like an u. Of which I need not produce any 
instances.^ The resolution therefore of the original will be like that of 
the translation. 

" Latrones jugulent liomines (At) 6ti surgunt de nocte." 

I shall not at this time stop here to account etymologically for the 
different words which some other languages (for there are others beside 
the Latin) employ in this manner instead of their own article : though, 
if it were exacted from me, T believe I should not refuse the undertaking ; 
although it is not the easiest part of etymology : for Abbreviation and 
Corruption are always busiest with the words which are most frequently 
in use. 

Perhaps it may be thought that, though this method of resolution will 
answer with most sentences, yet that there is one usage of the conjunction 
THAT which it will not explain. 

I mean in such instances as this : 
" IF THAT the King 
Have any way your good deserts forgot, 
He bids you name your griefs." 

How are we to bring out the article that, when two conjunctions, as 
it often happens, come in this manner together ? 

The truth of tlie matter is that if is merely a Verb. It is merely 
the imperative mood of tlie Gothic and Anglo-Saxon verbs ntr^N, 



^ " Quant a la voyelle u, pource qu'ils [les Italiens) I'aiment fort, ainsi que nous 
cognoissons par ces mots vfficio, zihiffato, ^c. je pense bien qu'ils la respccteut plus 
quo les autres." — lUnry Esiiene, de la Frecellence du lavyage Trangois. 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING. 689 

Eipan ; and in those languages, as well as in the English formerly, this 
supposed conjunction was pronounced and written as the common im- 
perative, purely Pll^, Eip, Gif. — Thus in B. Jonsou's Sad Shepherd 
(which though it be 

" such wool 
As from mere English flocks his muse could puU," 
I agree with its author, 
" is a fleece. 
To match or those of Sicily or Greece ") 
it is thus written, 

'* My largesse 
Hath lotted her to be vom* brother's mistresse, 
Gif she caa be reclaim'd ; gif not, his prey." 

And accordingly our corrupted if has always the signification of the 
present English imperative give, and no other. So that the resolution 
of the constmction in the instance I produced from Shakespeare, will 
be as before in the others. 

" The King may have forgotten your good deserts ; give that in 
any way ; he bids you name youi' griefs." 

And here, as an additional proof, we may observe, that whenever the 
datum, upon which any conclusion depends, is a sentence ; the article 
THAT, if not expressed, is always understood, and may be inserted after 
IF. As in the instance I have produced above, the poet might have 
said 

" Gif (that) she can be reclaim'd," &c. 
For the resolution is, 

" She can be reclaim'd, give that ; my largesse hath lotted her to 
be your brother's mistresse. She cannot be reclaim'd, give that ; my 
largesse hath lotted her to be your brother's prey." 

But the article that is not understood, and cannot be inserted after 
if ; where the datum is not a sentence, but some noun governed by the 
verb IF or give. As — 

Example. 

" How will the weatlier dispose of you tomorrow ? if fair, it will 
send me abroad : if foul, it will keep me at home." 

Here we cannot say — " if that fair, it v^dll send me abroad : if that 
foul, it will keep me at home." 

Because in this case the verb if governs the noun : and the resolved 

construction is 

Resolution. 

" Give fair weather, it will send me abroad : give foul weather, it 
will keep me at home." 

2 Y 



690 APPENDIX. 



But make the datum a sentence ; as- 



'^ Tf it is fair weather, it will send me abroad : IF it is foul weather, 
it will keep me at home ; " 

And then the article that is understood, and may be inserted after 
IF. As, — " IF THAT it is fair weather, it will send me abroad : if that 

it is foul weather, it will keep me at home." The resolution then 

being — '•' It is fair weather, give that, it will send me abroad : It is 
foul weather, give that, it will keep me at home." 

And this you will find to hold universally, not only with if, but with 
many other supposed conjunctions, such as unless that, though that, lest 
that, &c. (which are really verbs,) put in this manner before the article 
that. 

We have in English another word, which (though now rather obso- 
lete) used frequently to supply the place of if. As, 

" An you had an eye behind you, you might see more detraction at 
your heels, than fortunes before you." 

No doubt it will be asked ; in this and in all similar instances what 
is AN ? 

I do not know that any person has ever attempted to explain it, ex- 
cept Dr. S. Johnson in his Dictionary. He says, — " an is sometimes, 
in old authors, a contraction of and if." — Of which he gives a very un- 
lucky instance from Shakespeare; where both an and if are used in 
the same line ; 

" He cannot flatter, He ! 
An honest mind and plain ; he must speak truth ! 
An they will take it, — So. if not, he 's plain." 

Where if an was a contraction of and if ; an and if should rather 
change places. 

But I can by no means agree with Johnson's account. A part of one 
word only, employed to shew that another word is compounded with it, 
would indeed be a curious method of contraction: although even this 
account of it would serve my purpose : but the truth will serve it better : 
for AN is also a verb, and may very well supply the place of if : it being 
nothing else but the imperative mood of the Anglo-Saxon verb ^S'nan, 
which likewise means to give or to grant. 

Nor does an ever (as Johnson supposes) signify as if ; nor is it a 
contraction of them. 

I know indeed that Johnson produces Addison's authority for it. 

" My next pretty correspondent, like Shakespeare's Lion in Pyramus 
and Thisbe, roars an it were any nightingale." 

Now if Addison had so written, I should answer roundly, that he 
had written false English. But he never did so write. He only quoted 
it in mirth. And Johnson, an editor of Shakespeare, ought to have 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING. 691 

known and observed it. And then, instead of Addison's, or even 
Shakespeare's authority froni whom the expression is borrowed ; he 
should have quoted Bottom's, the Weaver ; whose language con-esponds 
with the character Shakespeare has given him.^ 

" I will aggravate my voice so (says Bottom) that I will roar you as 
gently as any sucking dove : I will roar you an 'twere any nightingale." 

If Johnson is satisfied with such authority as this for the different 
signification and propriety of English words ; he will find enough of it 
amongst the clowns in all our comedies ; and Master Bottom in parti- 
cular, in this very sentence, will furnish him with many new meanings. 
But, I believe, Johnson will not find an used for as if, either seriously 
or clownishly, in any other part of Addison or Shakespeare, except in 
this speech of Bottom, and in another of Hostess Quickly : — 

" He made a finer end, and went away an it had been any Christom 
child." 

Now when I say that these two English words ir and an w^hich have 
been called conditional conjunctions, (and whose force and manner of 
signification, as well as of the other conjunctions we are directed by Mr. 
Locke to search after in — " the several views, postures, stands, turns, 
limitations, and exceptions, and several other thoughts of the mind for 
which we have either none or very deficient names'^) when I say that they 
are merely the original Imperatives of the verbs to give or to grant ; 
I woidd not be understood to mean that the conditional conjunctions of 
all other languages are likewise to be found, like if and an, in the 
original imperatives of some of their own or derived verbs meaning to 
GIVE. No, if that were my opinion, it would instantly be confuted by 
the conditionals of the Greek and Latin and Irish and many living lan- 
guages. But I mean that those words which are called conditional con- 
junctions are to be accounted for, in all languages, in the same manner 
as I have accounted for if and an. Not indeed that they must all mean 
precisely as these two do, — give and grant ; but some word equivalent. 
Such as, — Be it. Suppose^ Allow, Permit, Suffer, &c. 

Which meaning is to be sought for from the particular etymology of 
each language ; not from some unnamed and unknown — " turns, stands, 
postures, &c. of the mind." 

In short, to put this matter out of doubt, I mean to discard all sup- 
posed mystery, not only about these Conditionals, but about all those 
words also which Mr. Harris and others distinguish from Prepositions, 
and call Conjunctions of sentences. I deny them to be a separate sort 
of words, or part of speech by themselves. Eor they have not a sepa- 

^ "The shallovv'st thickscull of that barren sort, 
A crew of patches, rude mechanicals. 
That work for bread npon Athenian stalls." 

2 Y 2 



G92 APPENDIX. 

rate manner of signification : although they are not " devoid of signifi- 
cation."' And the particular signification of each must be sought for 
from amongst the other parts of speech, by the help of the particular 
etymology of each respective language. By such means alone can we 
clear away the obscurity and errors in which grammarians and philo- 
sophers have been involved by the corruption of some common words 
and the useful Abbreviations of Construction. And at the same time 
we shall get rid of that farrago of useless distinctions into Conjunctive, 
Adjunctive, Disjunctive, Sub-disjunctive, Copulative, Continuative, Sub- 
continuative, Positive, Suppositive, Causal, Collective, Effective, Ap- 
probative, Discretive, Ablative, Praesumptive, Abnegative, Completive, 
Preventive, Adversative, Concessive, Motive, Conductive, &c. &c. &c. 
— which explain nothing ; and (as most other technical terms are 
abused) serve only to throw a veil over the ignorance of those who 
employ them. 

You will easily perceive, Sir, by what I have said, that I mean flatly 
to contradict Mr. Harris's definition of a ConjuncticJn ; which, he says, 
is — " A part of speech devoid of signification itself, but so formed as to 
help signification by making two or more significant sentences to be one 
significant sentence." 

And I have the less scruple to do that ; because Mr. Harris makes no 
scruple to contradict himself. For he afterwards acknowledges that some 
of them — " have a kind of obscure signification, when taken alone ; and 
that they appear in grammar like Zoophytes in Nature, a kind of middle 
beings of amphibious character, which, by sharing the attributes of the 
higher and the lower, conduce to link the whole together." 

Now I suppose it is impossible to convey a Notldng in a more ingenious 
manner. How much superior is this to the oracular Saw of another 
learned author on language (Lord Monboddo), who amongst much other 
intelligence of equal importance, tells us with a very solemn face, and 
ascribes it to Plato, that — " Every man that opines must opine something, 
the subject of opinion therefore is not nothing." ^ 

Eut^Mr. Harris has the advantage of a similie over this gentleman : 
and though similies appear with most beauty and propriety in works of 
imagination, they are frequently found most useful to the authors of 
philosophical treatises : and have often helped them out at many a 
dead lift, by giving them an appearance of saying something, when in- 
deed they had nothing to say. But we may depend upon it, — Nubila 
mens est, hacc ubi regnavit. As a proof of which, let us only examine 



^ " II possede rantiquite, commc on le pcut voir par Ics belles rcmavques qu'il a 
faites. Sans lui nous nc s9aurions pas quo dans la ville d'Atliencs Ics enfans pleuroicnt 
quaiid on Icur donnoit Ic ibuct. — Nous dcvous cettc dccouverte a sa pvofondc erudition." 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING. 693 

the present instance, and see what intelligence we can draw from Mr. 
Harris concerning the nature of Conjunctions. 

First, he says (and makes it a part of their definition) that they are 
*' devoid of signification." ^ Afterwards he allows that they have " a 
kind of signification." " But this kind of signification is obscure," i. e. 
a signification unknown : something I suppose (as Chillingworth couples 
them) like a secrei tradition, or a sile?it thunder ; for it amounts to the 
same thing as a signification which does not signify : an obscure or un- 
known signification being no signification at all. But not contented 
with these inconsistencies, which to a less learned man would seem 
sufficient of all conscience, Mr. Harris goes further, and adds, that they 
are a — " kind of middle beings " (he must mean between signification 
and no signification) ; " sharing the attributes of both ; " (i. e. of sig. 
and no sig.) and " conduce to link them both " (i. e. signification and no 
signification) "together." 

It would have helped ns a little if Mr. Harris had here told us what 
that middle state is, between siarnification and no signification ! what 
are the attributes of no signification ! and how, signification and no 
signification can be linked together ! 

Now all this may, for aught I know, be — " read and admired, as long 
as there is any taste for fine writing in Britain." — But with such 
unlearned and vulgar philosophers as IVIi*. Locke and his disciples, who 
seek not taste and elegance, but truth and common sense in philosophical 
subjects, I believe it will never pass as a " perfect example of analysis," 
nor bear away the palm for " acuteness of investigation " and " perspi- 
cuity of explication." — For, (separated from the fine writing,) thus is 
the Conjunction explained by Mr. Harris ; 

— A word devoid of signification, having at the same time a hind of 
ohscure signification ; and yet having neither signification nor no signifi- 
cation; but a middle something, between signification and no significa- 
tion, sharing the attributes both of signification and no signification ; and 
linking signification and no signification together. 

If others of a more elegant Taste for Fine Writing are able to receive 
either pleasure or instruction from such " truly philosophical language," 
I shall neither dispute with them nor envy them : but can only deplore 
the dulness of my own apprehension, who, notwithstanding the great 
authors quoted in Mr. Harris's Treatise, and the great authors who 
recommend it, cannot lielp considering this " perfect example of Analysis," 
as, An improved compihuion of almost all the errors which gramma- 
rians have been accumuhiting from the time of Aristotle down to our 
present days of technical and learned aff'ectation. 

^ Observe Mr. Harris defines a "Word to be "a sound significant^ And novv he 
defines a Coujuuction to be a word (i. e. a sound significant) devoid of signification. 



694 APPENDIX. 

I can easily suppose that in this censure which I thus unreservedly 
cast upon Mr. Harris, (and which I do not mean to confine to his account 
of the conjunctions alone, but extend to all that he has written on the 
subject of language) I can easily suppose that I shall be thought, by 
those who know not the grounds of my censure, to have spoken too 
sharply. They will probably say that I still carry with me my old 
humour in politics, though my subject is now different ; and that, ac- 
cording to the hackneyed accusation, I am against authority, only because 
authority is against me. But, if I know anything of myself, I can with 
truth declare, that Neminem libenter nominem, nisi ut laudem ; sed nee 
peccata reprehenderem, nisi ut aliis prodessem. And so far from spum- 
ing authority, I have always upon philosophical subjects addressed myself 
to an inquiry into the opinions of others with all the diffidence of con- 
scious ignorance ; and have been disposed to admit of half an argument 
from a great name. So that it is not my fault if I am forced to carry 
instead of following the lantern; but at all events it is better than 
walking in total darkness. 

And yet, though I believe I differ from all the accounts which have 
hitherto been given of language, I am not so much without authority 
as may be imagined. Mi\ Harris himself, and all the grammarians 
whom he has and whom he has not quoted, are my authorities. Their 
own doubts, their difficulties, their dissatisfaction, their contradictions, 
their obscurity on all these points, are my authorities against them : 
for their system and their difficulties vanish together. Indeed, unless 
I had been repeating what others have written, it is impossible I should 
quote any direct authorities for my own manner of explanation. But let 
us hear Wilkins, whose industry deserved to have been better employed, 
and his perseverance better rewarded with discovery ; let us hear what 
he says. 

" According to the true philosophy of speech, I cannot conceive this 
kind of words " (he speaks of Adverbs and Conjunctions) " to be pro- 
perly a distinct part of speech, as they are commonly called. But untill 
they can be distributed into their proper places, I have so far com- 
plied with the grammars of instituted languages, as to place them here 
together." 

Mr. Locke's dissatisfaction with all the accounts which he had seen, is 
too well known to need repetition. 

Sanctius rescued quod particularly from the number of these mys- 
terious Conjunctions; though he left ut amongst them. 

And Servius, Scioppius, J. G. Vossius, Perizonius, and others, have 
displaced and explained many other supposed adverbs and conjunctions. 

Skinner has accounted for if before me, and in the same manner ; 
which, though so palpable. Lye confirms and compliments. 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING. 695 

Even S. Johnson, though mistakenly, has attempted and. And 
would find no difficulty with therefore. 

In short, there is not such a thing as a Conjunction in any language, 
which may not, by a skilful herald, be traced home to its own family and 
origin ; without having recourse to contradiction and mystery, with Mr. 
Harris; or, with Mr. Locke, cleaving open the head of man, to give it 
such a birth as Minerva's from the brain of Jupiter. 

After all, I do not know whether I shall be quietly permitted to call 
these authorities in my favour : for I must fairly acknowledge that the 
full stream and current sets the other way, and only some little brook or 
rivulet runs with me. I must confess that all the authorities which I 
have alleged, except Wilkins, are upon the whole against me. For, 
though they have explained the meaning and traced the derivation of 
many adverbs and conjunctions ; yet, (except Sanctius in the particular 
instance of quod, — whose conjunctive use in Latin he too strenuously 
denies) they all acknowledge them still to be adverbs or conjunctions. 

It is true, they distinguish them by the title of reperta or usurjpata : 
but they at the same time acknowledge (indeed the very distinction itself 
is an acknowledgment) that there are others which are real, primigenia^ 
7iativa, imra. 

But the true reason of this distinction is, because that of the origin 
of the greater part of them they are totally ignorant. But has any 
philosopher or grammarian ever yet told us what a real^ original^ native^ 
pure Adverb or Conjunction, is ? Or which of these conjunctions of 

sentences are so? Whenever that is done, in any language, I 

may venture to promise that I will shew those likewise to be repertaSy 
and umrpatas, as well as the rest. I shall only add, that though Ah' 
hreviation and Corruption are always busiest with the toords which are 
most frequently in use ; yet the words most frequently used are least 
liable to be totally laid aside. And therefore they are often retained, — 
(I mean that branch of them which is most frequently used) when most 
of the other words (and even the other branches of these retained words) 
are, by various changes and accidents, quite lost to a language. Hence 
the difficulty of accounting for them. And hence, (because only one 
branch of these declinable words is retained in a language) arises the 
notion of their being indeclinable ; and a separate sort of words, or Part 
of Speech by themselves. But that they are not indeclinable, is suffi- 
ciently evident by what I have ah-eady said : Por dp, Xn, &c. certainly 
could not be called indeclinable, when all the other branches of those 
verbs, of which they are the regular Imperatives, were likewise in use. 
And that the words If, An, &c. (which still retain their original sig- 
nification, and are used in the very same manner, and for the same pur- 



696 APPENDIX. 

pose 33 formerljr) should now be called indeclinable, proceeds merely 
from the ignorance of those who could not account for them ; and who, 
therefore, with Mr. Hanis, were driven to say that they have neither 
meaning ^ nor Inflection : whilst notwithstanding they were still forced 
to acknowledge (either directly, or by giving them different titles of 
conditional, admrmtive, fee.) that they have a " kind of obscure mean- 
ing." 

How much more candid and ingenuous would it have been, to have 
owned fairly that they did not understand the nature of these Conjunc- 
tions ; and, instead of wrapping it up in mysteiy, to have exhorted and 
encouraged others to a further search ! ^ 

jSTow, Sir, I am presumptuous enough to assert that what I have done 
with IF and 'AN, maybe done universally with all the Conjunctions of 
all the languages in the world. I know that many persons have often 
been misled by a fanciful etj^mology ; but I assert it universally not so 
much from my own slender acquisition of languages, as from arguments 
a priori : which arguments are however confirmed to me by a successful 
search in many other languages besides the English, in which I have 
traced these supposed unmeaning, indeclinable conjunctions to their 
source ; and should not at all fear undertaking to shew clearly and 
satisfactorily the origin and precise meaning of each of these pretended 
unmeaning, indeclinable conjunctions, at least in all the dead and living 
languages of Europe. 

But because men talk very safely of what they may do, and what they 
miglit have done ; and 1 cannot expect that others who have no suspicion 
of the thing, should come over to my opinion, unless I perform, at least 
as much as Wilkins (who had a suspicion of it) required before he would 
venture to differ from the grammars of instituted languages ; I will distri- 
bute our English conjunctions into their proper places ; and thus wilfully 
impose upon myself a task which I am told " no man however learned or 
sagacious has yet been able to perform." ^ 



^ There is not, nor is it possible there should be, a word in any language, which 
has not a complete meaning and signification, even when taken by itself. Adjectives, 
prepositions, adverbs, &c. have all complete, separate meanings; not diflSLCuIt to be 
discovered. 

^ This general censure would be highly unjust, if an exception of praise was not 
here made for Bacon, Wilkins, Locke, and S. Johnson; who are ingenuous on the 
subject. 

^ " The particles are, among all nations, applied with so great latitude, that they 
are not easily reducible under any regular scheme of explication : this difficulty is not 
less, nor perhaps greater, in English than in other languages. I have laboured them 
with diligence, I hope with success : such at least as can be expected in a task, which no 
man, however learned or sagacious, has yet been able to perform." — Preface to S. 
Johnson's Bidionary. 



LETTER TO MR. DUXNING. 697 

Thus then ; I say that 

If Irip Iripan To give 

An Tin 'Kuan To grant 

Unless Onlej' Onlej'an To dismiss 

Eke 6ac « Gacan To add 

Yet I Irer o Eetan To get 

StiU 'f S-cell ^ Srellan To put 

Else • |.^l^r '-S ^lej-an To dismiss 

Tho', or Though^ Bar, or Dapg | { ^^P^"' ^^ ] To allow 

But -^ Bor .g Eoran To Boot 

But ^ Be-uran :g Beon-utan To be-out 

Without PyjrS-uzan 'o peorL^an-utan To be-out 

And 5Cn-ab Xnan-ab ] ^"'■^ ^^V^' 

I riem 

Lest, is the Participle Lej'eb, of Lej^an, to dismiss 

Since 8i^-^an n 

Since Syne I - .^ -r, ,- - ^ eo rv 

c,. c c r IS the Participle oi Seon, io see 

bince beanb-ej" V ^ 

Since Si^-^e, or Sm-ej' ) 

That is the Neuter Article Dat. 

These I apprehend are the only conjunctions in our language which 
can cause any difficulty ; and it would be impertinent in me to explain 
such as Be-it, Albeit, Notvntlidandiiuj, Nevertheless, Set,^ Save, Except, 
Out-cept^ Out-taJce,^ To 2cit, Because, ^c. which are evident at first 
sight. 

I hope it will be acknowledged that this is coming to the point ; and 
is fairer than shuffling them over as all philosophers and grammarians 
have hitherto done ; or than repeating after others, that they are not 
themselves any part of languages, but only such Accessaries, as Salt 
is to Meat, or Water to Bread; or that they are the mere Edging, or 
Sauce of language ; or that they are like the Bandies to Cups, or the 
Plumes to Helmets, or the Binding to Books, or Harness for Horses ; or 
that they are Pegs, and Nails, and Nerves, and Joints, and Ligaments, 
and Lime and Mortar, and so forth. 

^ " Set this my work full febill be of rent." — G. Dovglas. 

^ " I'l'd play hun 'gaine a knight, or a good squire, or gentleman of any other 
countie i' the kingdome, — Outcept Kent : for there they landed all gentlemen." — B. 
Jovson. Tale of a Tub. 

^ " And also I resygne al my knyghtly dignitie, magesty, and erownc, wvth all the 
lordeshyppes, powre, and pryvileges to the forcsayd kingely dygnitie and crown be- 
longing, and al other lordshippes and possesyons to me in any mancr of wysc pcrtayn- 
ynge, wliat name and condicion thci be of, out-take the landes and possessions for me 
and mine obyte j)urehased and broughlc." — lustnanent of lh'si(jnation of K. Richard 
11. in Fabians Chronicle. 



698 APPENDIX. 

In which kind of pretty similies philosophers and grammarians seem 
to have vied with one another ; and have often endeavoured to amuse 
their readers and cover their own ignorance, by very learnedly disputing 
the propriety of the similie, instead of explaining the nature of the 
conjunction. 

I must acknowledge that I have not any authorities for the deriva- 
tions which I have given of these words ; and that all former etymo- 
logists are against me. But I am persuaded that all future - etymo- 
logists (and perhaps some philosophers) will acknowledge their obliga- 
tion to me : for these troublesome Conjunctions, which have hitherto 
caused them so much mistaken and unsatisfactory labour, shall save 
them many an error and many a weary step in future. 

They shall no more expose themselves by unnatural forced conceits 
to derive the English and all other languages from the Greek or the 
Hebrew, or some imaginary primaeval tongue. The Conjunctions of 
every language shall teach them whither to direct and where to stop 
their inquiries : for wherever the evident meaning and origin of the 
conjunctions of any language can be found, there is the certain source 
of the whole. -^ 

But, I beg pardon ; this is digressing from my present purpose. I 
have nothing to do with the learning of mere curiosity ; nor must (at 
this time) be any further concerned with etymology, and the false phi- 
losophy received concerning language and the human understanding, 
than as it is connected with the point with which I began. 

If you please therefore, and if your patience is not exhausted, we 
will return to the conjunctions I have derived : and if you think it 
worth the while we will examine the conjectures of other persons 
about them, and see whether I have not something better than their 
authority in my favour. 

IF. AK 

If and an may be used mutually and indifferently to supply each 
other's place. 

Besides having Skinner's authority for if, I suppose that the mean- 
ing and derivation of this principal supporter of the Tripod of Truth* 
are so very clear and simple and universally allowed, as to need no fur- 
ther discourse about it. 

GiF is to be found not only, as Skinner says, in Lincolnshire ; but 
in all our old writers. G. Douglas almost always uses Gif ; once or 
twice only he has used if ; and once he uses Gewe for Gif. Chaucer 



"• This is to be understood with certain limitations not necessary to be now men- 
tiouod. 

* See Plutarch, Why E I was engraved upon the gates of the temple of ApoUo. 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING. 699 

commonly uses if ; but sometimes yeve/ yef, and yf. And it is to be 
observed, that in Cliaucer, and other old writers, the verb to Give suffers 
the same variations in the manner of writing it, however used, whether 
conjunctively or otherwise. 

" Well ought a priest ensample for to teye." Prol. to Cant. Tales, 

" Lo here tlie letters seHd of this thing. 
That I mote here in all the haste I may ; 
Yeve ye well ought unto your sonne the king, 
I am your servant both by night and day." 3fan of Lawes Tale. 

" This gode ensample to his shepe he taffe." Trol. to Cant. Tales. 

Yef is also used as well for the common imperative as for what we call 
the conjunction. 

" Your vertue is so grete in heven above, 
That IF the Ust I shall well have my love, 
Thy temple shall I worship evir mo, 
And on thine aulter, where I ryde or go, 
I woU don sacrifise, and firis bete; 
And YEF ye woll nat so my lady swete. 
Then pray I you tomorrow with a spere 
That Arcite do me through the herte here : 
Then reke I not, whan I have lost my life, 
Though Arcite wannin her to his wife. 
This is th' effect and ende of my prayere ; 
Yef me my lady, blissful lady dere." Chaucer^ KnighCs Tale. 

Gin ^ is often used in our Northern counties and by the Scotch, as 
we use IF or an : which they do with equal propriety and as little cor- 
ruption : for Ghi is no other than the participle Given, Gi'en, Gi'n. (As 
they also use Gie for Give, and Gien for Given, when they are not used 
conjunctively.) And hoc data is of equal conjunctive value in a sentence 
with da hoc. 

Even our Londoners often pronounce Give and Given in the same 
manner ; 

As, — " Gi' me your hand " 

" I have Gin it him well." 

I do not know that an has been attempted by any one, except S. 
Johnson : and from the judicious distinction he has made between Junius 
and Skinner, I am persuaded that he will himself be the first person to 
relinquish his own conjecture. 



^ Yeve was commonly used in England instead of Give, even so low down as in the 
sixteenth century. See Henry Vllth's Will. 

^ " Gi/i, Gif, in the old Saxon is Gif, from whence the word If is made per aphae- 
resin liters G. Gif from the verb Gif an, dare ; and is as much as Lalo.'" — liiufs 
North Country Words. 



700 APPENDIX. 



UNLESS. 



Skinner says, — "Unless, nisi, prseter, praeterquam, q. d. one-less, i. e. 
imo dempto seu excepto : vel potius ab Onlej-an, dimittere, liberare, q. d. 
Hoc dimisso." 

It is extraordinary, after his judicious derivation of if, that Skinner 
should be at a loss about that of unless : especially as he had it in a 
manner before him : for Onlej-, dlmitte, was surely more obvious and 
immediate than Onlej-eb, dimisso. As for — One-less, i. e. uno dempto seu 
excepto, it is too poor to deserve notice. 

So low down as in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, this conjunction was 
sometimes written oneles : for so (amongst others) Eobert Home, Bishop 
of Winchester, writes it in his Answeai^e to FekenJiam toucJiinge the otlie of 
the supremacy. — 

" I coulde not choose, oneles I woulde shewe myselfe overmuch un- 
kinde unto my native countrey, but take penne in hande, and shape him 
a ful and plaine answeare, without any curiositie." — J^reface. 

And this way of spelling it, which should rather have directed Skinner 
to its true etymology, might perhaps contribute to mislead him to the 
childish conjecture of " one-less, Uno dempto.^' — But in other places it is 
written purely onles. 

Thus, in the same book, 

" The election of the Pope made by the clergie and people in those 
dales, was but a vaine thing, onles the Emperour or his lieutenant had 
confirmed the same." Fol. 48. 

" The Pope would not consecrate the elect bishop, onles he had first 
licence therto of the Emperour." Fol. 63. 

" No prince, no not the Emperour himselfe should be present in the 
councell with the cleargie, onles it were when the principall pointes of 
faith were treated of." Fol. 67. 

"He sweareth the Komaines, that they shall never after be present 
at the election of any Pope, onles they be compelled thereunto by the 
Emperour." Fol. 71. 

" Who maketh no mencion of any priest there present, as you untruely 
report, onles ye will thinke he meant the order, whan he named the 
faction of the Pharisees." Fol. 111. 

It is likewise sometimes written — onlesse and onelesse. 

" So that none should be consecrate, onlesse he were commended and 
investured bishop of the kinge." Fol. 59. 

"And further to commaunde the newe electe Pope to forsake that 
dignitie unlawfully . come by, onlesse they woulde make a reasonable 
satisfaction." Fol. 73. 

" That the Pope might sende into his dominions no Legate, onlesse 
the kinge should sende for him." Fol. 76. 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING. 701 

" What man, onlesse lie be not well in his wittes, will say that " &c. 
Fol. 95. 

" To exercise this kinde of jurisdiction, neither kinges nor civil ma- 
gistrates may take uppon him, oxlesse he be lawfully called there unto." 
Fol. 105, 

"That from hencefoorth none should be Pope, onelesse he were 
created by the consent of the Emperour." Fol. 75. 

" Ye cannot finde so muche as the bare title of one of them, onelesse 
it be of a bishoppe." Fol. 113. 

In the same manner, Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, writes it in his 
" Declaration against Joye." -^ 

" No man commeth to me, onlesse my Father draweth hym." 
Fol. 29. 

" Can any man further reply to this carpenter, onles a man wolde 
saye, that the carpenter was also after, the thefe hymselfe." Fol. 43. 

" For ye fondely improve a conclusion which myght stande and be 
true, ONLESSE in teaching ye wyl so handel the matter, as " &c. Fol. 54. 

" We cannot love God, onles he prepareth our harte, and geve us 
that grace : no more can we beleve God, onlesse he giveth us the gift 
ofbelefe." Fol. 64. 

"In every kynde the female is commenly barren, onlesse it conceyveth 
of the male ; so is concupyscence barren and voyde of synne, onlesse it 
conceyve of man the agreymente of his free wyll." Fol, 66. 

"We may not properly saye we apprehend justification by fayth, 
onlesse we wolde call the promisse of God," &c. Fol. 68. 

" Such other pevishe words as men be encombred to heare, onles 
they wolde make Goddes worde, the matter of the Devylles strife." 
Fol. 88. 

" Who can wake out of synne, without God call him, and onlesse 
God hath given eares to heare this voyce of God ? How is any man, 
beyng lame with synne, able to take up his couclie and walke, onlesse 
God sayeth," &c. Fol. ^o} 

^ lu the same manner Barnes (on the occasion of whose death Gardiner wrote this 
Declaration) writes it in his Supplicatioii to K. Henry Vlfl. 

" I shall come to the councell, when soever I bee called, onles I be lawfully let." 
p. 195. 

2 So in the Trial of Sir John OldcasUe, Lord Cobham, 1413. 

" It was not possible for them to make whole Cliristes cote without seme onlksse 
certeyn great men were brouglit out of the way." 

So in the Whetstone of WUte. 

" I see moure menue to acknowledge the benefit of noniber, then I can espic willyng 
to studie, to attain the bcnefitcs 'of it. Many praise it, but fewc dooc greatly practise 
it, ONLESSE it bee for the vulgare practice concernyng merchaundos trade," — The 
Whetstone of WUte, by Robert Recorde, rhisiclan ; 155?. (If himself say true, the 
first author" concerning Arithmetic iu English: "The first venturer in these darke 
matters,"— P/v/ac^.) 



703 APPENDIX. 

I have here given yon all the instances where this conjunction is used 
in these two small tracts I have quoted, which I suppose are something 
more than sufficient for my purpose ; unless you had as much leisure to 
read as I have to write. 

I do not remember to have ever met with Onlej* used in the Anglo- 
Saxon as we use Unless ; (though I have no doubt that it was so used in 
discourse) but, instead of it, they frequently employ nym^e or nera^e : 
(which is evidently the imperative nym or nem of nyman or neman, to 
which is subjoined ""Se, i. e. that.) And — Nym^e, Take away that, — 
may very well supply the place of — Onlej" (^e expressed or understood) 
Dismiss that. 

Les,^ the imperative of Lej^an, (which has the same meaning as On- 
lejran) is likewise used sometimes by old writers instead of Unless. As, 

" And thus I am constrenit, als nere as I may, 
To hald his verse, and go nane ntMr way. 
Les sum historic, subtell worde, or ryme, 
Causis me mak degressioun sum tyme" G. Douglas, Preface. 

You will please to observe that all the languages which have a cor- 
respondent conjunction to Unless, as well as the manner in which its 
place is supplied by the languages which have not a correspondent 
conjunction to it, all strongly justify my derivation. 

Though it certainly is not worth the while, I am tempted here to 
observe the gross mistake Mr. Harris has made in the force of this word, 
which he calls an "adequate preventive." His example is, — "Troy 
will be taken, unless the Palladium be preserved." — " That is, (says 
Mr. Han-is,) This alone is sufficient to preserve it." — According to 
the oracle, so indeed it might be ; but the word unless has no such 
force. 

Let us try another instance. 

" England will be enslaved, unless the House of Commons continue 
a part of the legislature." 

Now I ask, — Is this alone sufficient to preserve it ? We who live 
in these limes know but too well that this very House may be made the 
instrument of a tyranny as odious and {perhaps) more lasting than 
that of the Stuarts. T am afraid Mr. Harris's adequate preventive, un- 
less, will not save us. For though it is most cruel and unnatural, yet 
we know by woful experience that the kid may be seethed in the 
mother's milk, which Providence appointed for its nourishment ; and the 



" Yet is it not accepted as a like flatte, onles it bee referred to some other square 
nomber." — Whetstone of IFitte, p. 54. 

^ It is the same imperative at the end of tliose words which are called adjectives, 
such as hopeless, motionless, &c. i. e. dismiss hope, diswiss motion, &c. 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING. 703 

liberties of tliis country be destroyed by that very part of the legislature 
which was most especially appointed for their security. 

EKE. 

Junius says, — "Eak, etiam. Goth. ^tlK. A.-S. Gac. Al. Juck. 
D. Og, B. Ooh. Yiderentur esse ex inverso Kat, sed rectius petas ex prox- 
ime sequenti /VHK-JVN (Isl. Auka) A.-S. Gacan. ecan. ican. Al. Auclion. 
D. Oge. B. Oecken. Gacan vero, vel AucJion, sunt ab av^^iv vel ae^eiv, 
addere, adjicere, augere." 

Skinner says, — " Eke, ab A.-S. 6ac, Deac. Belg. Oock. Teut. Auck. 
Fr. Th. OucL D. Oc. Etiam." 

Skinner then proceeds to the verb, 

" To Eke, ab A.-S. Gacan. Ireican. lecan, augere, adjicere. Er. Jun. 
suo more, deflectit a Gr. av^eiv. Mallem ab 6ac, iterum, quod vide : 
Quod enim augetur, secundum partes suas quasi iteratur et de novo fit." 

In this place Skinner does not seem to enjoy his usual superiority of 
judgement over Junius : and it is very strange that he should chuse here 
to derive the verb Gacan from the conjunction 6ac, (that is, from its own 
imperative) rather than the conjunction (that is, the imperative) from the 
verb. His judgement was more awake when he derived if or gif from 
Eipan ; and not Gipan from dp : which yet, according to his present 
method, he should have done. 

YET. STILL. 

I put the conjunctions yet and still here together ; because (like 
If and A?i) they may be used mutually for each other without any 
alteration in the meaning of the sentences : a circumstance which 
(though not so obviously as in these instances) happens likewise to 
some other of the conjunctions; and which is not unworthy of con- 
sideration. 

According to my derivation of them both, this mutual interchange will 
not seem at all extraordinary : Eor yet (which is nothing but the impe- 
rative Irer or Hyx, of Ire'can or Hyran, obtinere), and still (which is 
only the imperative Stell or S-ceall, of Stellan or Steallian, ponere) may 
very well supply each other's place, and be indifferently used for the same 
purpose. 

But I will repeat to you the derivations which others have given, and 
leave you to determine between us. 

Mer. Casaubon says — "En, adkuc, yet." Junius says, — "Yet, 
adhuc, A.-S. ^yz. Cymra^is etwa, etto, significat adhuc, etiam, iterum : ex 
€TL vel avBis.^^ 

Skinner says, — " Yet, ab A.-S. Eer, Ireta, adhuc, modo. Teut. Jetzt, 
jam, mox." 

Skinner says, — " Still, assidue, indesinenter, incessanter. Nescio 



704 APPENDIX. { 

an ab A.-S. Till, addito tanfum sibilo : vel a nostro, et credo etiam, 
A.-S. AS, ut, sicut, (licet apud Somnerum non occurrat), et eodera Til, 
usque, q. d. Usque, eodem modo.''^ 

ELSE. 

This word else, formerly written Alles, Alys, Jlyse, Biles, Ellus, 
Ellis, Els, and now^ Else; is, as I have said, no other than 'Kl^y or 
'Klyy, the imperative of !S^le]ran or TTlyf an, dimittere. 

Mr. Warton, in his History of EnglisJi Eoetry, vol. i. (without any 
authority, and in spite of the context, which evidently demands else and 
will not admit of also) has explained alles in the following passage by 

ALSO. 

" The Soudan ther he satte in halle ; 
He sent his messagers faste withalle, 

To hire fader the kyng. 
And sayde, how so hit ever bifalle. 
That mayde he wolde clothe in palle 

And spousen hire with his ryng. 
And ALLES 1 swere withouten fayle 
I schull hire winnen in pleyn battayle 

With mony an heih lordyng," &c. Ed. 8vo. vol. ii. p. 24. 

The meaning of which is evidently, — " Giv^e me your daughter, else I 
will take her by force." 

It would have been nonsense to say, — " Give me your daughter, also 
I will take her by force." 

I quote this passage, not for the sake of censuring Mr. AYarton, but to 
give you one of the most recent instances, as I suppose, of alles used 
for else in English. 

Junius says, — "Else, aliter, alias, alioqui. A.-S. Gllej". KS.. Alles. 
D. Ellersr 

Skinner says, — " Else ab A.-S. Gllejf, alias, alioquin. Minshew et 
Dr. Th. H. putant esse contractum a Lat. alias, vel Gr. aXXcos ; nee sine 
verisimilitudine. " 

S. Johnson says, — " Else, pronoun, (Gllej- Saxon) other; one besides. 
It is applied both to persons and things." He says again — " Else, 
adverb. 1. Otherwise. 2. Besides; except that mentioned." 

THOUGH. 
Tho' or TiiouGFi (or, as our country-folks more purely pronounce it, 
THAF, THAUF, and THOF ; and the Scotch who retain in their pronun- 
ciation the guttural termination,) is the imperative Dap or Dapij of the 
verb Dapian or Dapigan,^ concedere, permittcre, assentire, consentire. 



^ It is rcmarlcahle, that as there were originally two ways of writing the verb, with 
the aspirate G or without it ; so there still continue the two same ditlcrcnt ways of 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING. 705 

And Bajzij becomes Tliovg and Though (and Thoch, as G. Douglas and 
other Scotch authors write it) by "» transition of the same sort, and at 
least as easy, as that of Hawk from hapuc. 

I reckon it not a small confirmation of this etymologj^ that antiently 
they often used Algife^ ^^Vffy ^^^yf^ and Algive, instead of although. 
As, 

" "With Levy chere, with dolorous hart and mynd, 

Eche man may sorrow in his inward thought 

Thys Lords death, whose pere is hard to fynd 

Allgyf Englond and Fraunce were thorow saught." Skelton. 

Skinner says, — *' Though, ab A.-S. Deah. Belg. Boch. Belg. and 
Teut. Boch, tamen, etsi, quamvis." 

Though this word is called a conjunctive of sentences, it is constantly 
used (especially by children, and in low discourse,) not only between, 
but at the end of sentences. As, 

" Pro. Why do you maintain your poet's quarrel so with velvet and 
good clothes ? We have seen him in indifferent good clothes e're now 
himself." 

'■'Boy. And may again. But his clothes shall never be the best 
thing about him, though. He will have somewhat beside, either of 
humane letters or severe honesty, shall speak him a man, though he 
went naked." 

W^hat sentences are here connected by the prior though ? 

BUT. 

It was this word, but, which Mr. Locke had chiefly in view, when 
he spoke of conjunctions as marking some " stands, turns, limitations, 
and exceptions of the mind." And it was the corrupt use of this one 
word (but) in modern English, for two words (bot and but) originally 
(in the Anglo-Saxon) very different in signification, though (by* re- 
peated abbreviation and coiTuption) approaching in sound, which 
chiefly misled him. 

" But (says Mr. Locke) is a particle, none more familiar in our 
language; and he that says it is a discretive conjunction, and that it 
answers sed in Latin, or mais in French,^ thinks he has sufficiently 
explained it. But it seems to me to intimate several relations the mind 
gives to the several propositions or parts of them, which it joins by 
this monosyllable. 



writing the remaining part of this same verb Tho, or Though^ with the aspirate G or 
without it. 

^ It does not auswer to sed in Latin, or mais in French ; except only when it is used 
for BOX. Nor will any one word in any language answer to our English but : because 
a similar corruption in the same instance has not happened in any other language. 



706 APPENDIX. 

" First, — * But to say no more : ' 

" Here it intimates a stop of the cnind, in the course it was going, 
before it came to the end of it. 

" Secondly, — ' I saw but two plants :' 

" Here it shows, that the mind limits the sense to what is expressed, 
with a negation of all other. 

" Thirdly, — ' You pray ; BUT it is not that God would bring you to 
the true religion : ' 

" Fourthly, — ' But that he would confirm you in your own.' 

" The first of these buts intimates a supposition in the mind of 
something otherwise than it should be : the latter shews, that the 
mind makes a direct opposition between that and what goes before it. 

" Fifthly, — ' All animals have sense, but a dog is an animal.' 

" Here it signifies little more, but that the latter proposition is 
joined to the former, as the minor of a syllogism. 

" To these, I doubt not, might be added a great many other signifi- 
cations of this particle, if it were my business to examine it in its full 
latitude, and consider it in all the places it is to be found ; which if one 
should do, I doubt whether in all those manners it is made use of, it 
would deserve the title of discretive which grammarians give to it. 

" But I intend not ^ here a full explication of this sort of signs. The 
instances I have given in this one, may give occasion to reflect upon 
their use and force in language, and lead us into the contemplation of 
several actions of our minds in discoursing, which it has found a way 
to intimate to others by these particles, some whereof constantly, and 
others in certain constructions, have the sense of a whole sentence con- 
tained in them." 

Now all these difficulties are very easily to be removed without any 
effort of the understanding : and for that veiy reason I do not much 
wonder that Mr. Locke missed the explanation : for he dug too deep 
for it. But that the etymologists (who only just turn up the surface) 
should miss it, does indeed astonish me. It seems to me impossible 
that any man who reads only the most common of our old English au- 
thors should fail to observe it. 

Gawin Douglas, notwithstanding he frequently confouuds the two 
words and uses them improperly, does yet (without being himself 



^ " Essentiam finemquc conjunctiouum satis aple cxplicatum puto : nunc carum 
originem materianique videamus. Ncque vero Sigillatim pcrcurrcre omnes hi Animo 
est." — /. C. Scaliger. 

The constant excuse of. them all, wlicther grammatists, grammarians or philosophers ; 
thougli they dare not hazard the assertion, yet they would all have us understand 
that they can do it ; but nou in animo est. And it has never been done. 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING. 707 

aware of tlie distinction, and from the mere force of customary speecli) 
abound with so many instances and so contrasted, as to awaken, one 
should think, the most inattentive reader. 

" BoT thy werke shall endure in laude and glorie, 
But spot or fait condigne eteme memorie." Preface, 

" Box gif this ilk statew standis here wrocht. 
War with zour handis into the cietie brocht, 
Than schew he that the peopil of Asia 
But ony obstakill in fell battel suld ga." Book 2. 

" This chance is not but Goddis wiUis went, 
Nor is it not leful thyng, quod sche, 
Fra hyne Creusa thou turs away with the ; 
Nor the hie Governoure of the hevin above is 
Will suffer it so to be, bot the behaff is 
From hens to wend full fer into esile, 
And over the braid sey sayl furth niony a myle, 
Or thou cum to the land Hisperia, 
Quhare with soft coui'sis Tybris of Lidia 
Rynnys throw the riche feildis of pepiU stout ; 
Thare is gret substance ordenit the but dout." Book 2. 

" Bot gif the Fatis, but pleid. 



At my plesure suffer it me life to leid." Book 4. 

■ Bot sen ApoUo clepit Gryneus, 
Grete Italic to seik commandis us. 
To Itahe eik Oraclis of Licia 

Admonist us but mare delay to ga." Book 4. 

■ Thou wyth thir harmes overchargit me also, 
Quhen I fell fyrst into this rage, quod sche, 
Bot so to do my tcris constrenyt the. 

Was it not lefull, alace, but cumpany. 

To me BUT cryme allane in chalmer to ly." Book 4. 

' The tothir answered, nouthir for drede nor boist, 
The luf of wourschip nor honoure went away is, 
Bot certanly the dasit blude now on dayis 
Waxis dolf and dull throw myne unwcildy age, 
The cald body has niynyst my curage : 
Bot war I now as umquliile it has bene, 
Zing as zone wantoun woistarc so Strang thay wcnc, 
Ze had I now sic zoutheid, traistis me. 
But ony price I suld aU reddy be." Book 5. 

The prince Eneas than seand this dout. 

No langar snffir wald sic wraith proccdc, 

Nor fcirs Entclkis mude thus rage and sprcdc ; 

BoT of the barganc maid end, but delay." Book 5. 

2 z 2 



708 APPENDIX. 

" In nowmer war thay but ane few menze, 
BOT thay war quyk, and valzeant in melle." Book 5. 

*' Blyn not, blyn not, thou grete Troian Enee, 
Of thy bedis nor prayeris, quod sche ; 
For BOT thou do, thir grete durris, but dred. 
And grislie zettis sail never warp on bred." Book 6. 

" How grete apperance is in him, but dout. 
Till be of proues, and ane vailzeant knycht : 
Bot ane blak sop of myst als dirk as nycht 
Wyth di-ery schaddow bylappis his hede." Book 6. 

" Bot sen that Virgil standis but compare." Prol. to Book 9. 

" Quhiddir gif the Goddis, or sum spretis silly 
Movis in our myndis this ardent thochtful fire. 
Or gif that every mannis schrewit desyre 
Be as his God and Genius in that place, 
I wat never how it standis, bot this lang space 
My mynd movis to me, here as I stand, 
Batel or sum grete thyng to tak on hand : 
I knaw not to quhat purpois it is drest, 
Bot be na way may I tak eis nor rest. 
Behaldis thou not so surelie but affray 
Zone Rutulianis haldis thaym glaid and gay ?" Book 9. 

" Bot lo, as thay thus wounderit in effray. 
This ilk Nisus, wourthin proude and gay, 
And baldare of his chance sa with him gone, 
Ane uthir takill assayit he anone : 
And with ane sound smate Tagus but remede." Book 9. 



Bot the tothir but sere. 



Bure at him mychtely wyth ane lang spere." Book 10. 

• Bot the Troiane Baroun unabasitilie 
Na wourdis preisis to render him agane ; 
Bot at his fa let fle ane dart or flane 
That hit Lucagus, quilk fra he felt the dynt. 
The schaft hinging into his scheild, but stynt. 
Bad drive his hors and chare al fordwert streicht." Book 10. 

' Bot quhat awalis bargane or Strang mclle 
Syne zeild the to thy fa, but ony quhy." Prol. to Book 11. 

' Than of his speich so wounderit war thay " 
Kepit thare silence, and wist not what to say, 
Bot athir towart uthir turnis but mare, 
And can behald his fallow in ane stare." Book 11 . 

' Bot now I se that zoung man haist but fale, 
To mache in feild wyth fatis iuequale." Book 12. 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING. 709 

" Quhare sone foregadderit all the Troyane army 
And thyck about hym flokkand can but baid, 

BoT nowthir scbeild nor wappinis down tliay laid." Book 12. 

The glossarist of Douglas contents himself with explaining bot by 

BUT. 

The glossarist to Uny's edition of Chaucer says, — bot for but is 
" a form of speech frequently used in Chaucer to denote the greater 
certainty of a thing." — This is a most inexcusable assertion : for, I be- 
lieve, the place cited in the Glossary is the only instance (in this edi- 
tion of Chaucer) where bot is used; and there is not the smallest 
shadow of reason for forming even a conjecture in favour of this un- 
satisfactory assertion : unsatisfactory, even if the fact had been so ; 
because it contains no explanation; for why should bot denote greater 
certainty ? 

And here it may be proper to observe, that Gawin Douglas's lan- 
guage (where bot is very frequently found), though written about a 
century after, must yet be esteemed more anlient than Chaucer's : even 
as at this day the present English speech in Scotland is, in many re- 
spects, more antient than that spoken in England so far back as the 
reign of Queen Elizabeth.'^ So Mer. Casaubon, {de Vet. Ling. Ang.) 
says of his time, — " Scotica lingua Anglica hodierna purior." — Where, 
by purior, he means nearer to the Anglo-Saxon. 

So G. Hickes, in his Anglo-Saxon Grammar (chap. 3.) says, — " Scoti 
in multis Saxonizantes.^' 

But to return to Mr. Locke, whom (as B. Jonson says of Shake- 
speare) " I reverence on this side of idolatry ; " in the five instances 
which he has given for five difi'erent meanings of the word but, there 
are indeed only two different meanings ; ^ nor could he, as he imagined 
he could, have added any other significations of this particle, but what 
are to be found in bot and but as I have explained them.^ 

^ This will not seem at all extraordinary if you reason directly contrary to Lord 
Monboddo on this subject ; by doing which you will generally be right as well in this 
as in almost every thing else which he has advanced. 

' " You must answer, that she was brought very near the fire, and as good as thrown 
in; or else that she was provoked to it by a divine inspiration. But, but that another 
divine inspiration moved the beholders to believe that she did therein a noble act, this 
act of hers might have been calumniated," &c. — Bonne s Biadat/aros, part 2. distinct. 
5. sect. 8. # 

In the above passage, which is exceedingly awkward, but is used in both its mean- 
ings close to each other : and the impropriety of the corruption appears therefore m its 
most offensive point of view. A careful author would avoid this, by placing these two 
BUTS at a distance from each other in the sentence, or by changing one of them for 
some other equivalent word. Whereas had the corruption not taken ])lace, he might 
without any inelegance fin this respect) have kept the construction of the sentence as 
it now stands: for nothing would have offended us, had it run thus, — "Boi, hutan 
that another divine inspiration moved the beholders," &c. 

^ S. Johnson, in his Dictionary, has numbered up eighteen different significations 
(as he imagines) of but : which however arc aU reducible to Bot, and Be-utan. 



710 APPENDIX. 

But, in the first, third, fourth, and fifth instances, is corruptly put 
for EOT, the imperative of Boran : 

In the second instance only it is put for Bu'ce, or Butan, or Be-utan.-^ 
In the first instance, — " To say no more," is a mere parenthesis : 
and Mr. Locke has unwarily attributed- to but, the meaning contained 
in the parenthesis : for suppose the instance had been this, — " but, to 
proceed." Or this, — " but, to go fairly thro' this matter." Or this, — 
" BUT, not to stop." 

Does BUT in any of these instances intimate a stop of the mind in the 
course it was going? The truth is, that but itself is the furthest of 
any word in the language from " intimating a stop." On the con- 
trary it always intimates something more,^ something to follow: (as 
indeed it does in this very instance of Mr. Locke's ; though we know 
not what that something is, because the sentence is not completed). 
And therefore whenever any one in discourse finishes his words with 
BUT, the question always follows — but what ? — 

So that Shakespeare speaks most truly as well as poetically, when he 
gives an account of but, very different from this of Mr. Locke : 
" 3Iess. Madam, he '3 well. 
Cleo. WeU said. 
3Iess. And friends with Csesar. 
Cleo. Thou 'rt an honest man. 
Mess. Csesar and he are greater friends than ever. 
Cleo. Make thee a fortune from me. 
Mess. But — yet — Madam, — 
Cleo. I do not like but — yet. — It does allay 

The good precedent. !Fie upon but, — yet. — 

But — YET — is as a jaylour, to bring forth 

Some monstrous malefactor." Antlioyiy and Cleo2)atra, act 2. sc. 5. 

^ " I saw but two plants." 
Not or Ne is here left out and understood, which used formerly to be always inserted, 
as it frequently is still. 

So Chaucer — " I ne usurpe not to have founden this werke of my labour or of myne 
engin. I n' ame but a leude compilatour of the laboure of old astrologiens, and have 
it translated in myn Engiishe. And with this swcrde shall I sleene envy." — Intro- 
duction to Conclusions of the AstrolaUe. 

Wc should now say — " I am but a leude compilatour," &c. 

^ In the French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and several other dead and 
living languages, the very word more is used for tb-'s conjunction but. • 

The French language anciently used mais not only as they now do for the conjunc- 
tion mais, but also as they «ow use flus, 
Y puis je mais ? 
Jc n'en puis mais, 
are still in use among the vulgar people ; in both which expressions it means more. So 
Henri Esticne uses it ; — 

" Sont si bien accoustumcz a ceste syncope, ou plustost apocope, qu'ils en font 
quclquesfois autant aux dissylables, qui n'en pcnveut mais." — //. E. de la Precellence 
dii Lanr/age Francois, p. 18. 

"Mais vient de mayis (j'cnteus mais pour d'avaatage)," — Ibid. p. 131. 



1 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING; 711 

where j^ou may observe tliat yet (though used elegantly here, to mark 
more strongly the hesitation of the speaker) is merely superfluous to 
the sense ; as it is always when used after eot : for either BOT^or yet 
alone (and especially bot) has the very same effect, and wiU always be 
found to allay equally the Good, or the Bad} precedent ; by something 
more'^ that foUows. For Boran means — to hoot} i. e. to superadd,^ to 
supply, to substitute, to compensate with, to remedy with, to make 
amends with, to add something more in order to make up a deficiency 
in something else. 

So likewise in the tlilrd and fourth instances, (taken from Chilling- 
worth).^ Mr. Locke has attributed to but, a meaning which can only 
be collected from the words which foUow it. 



* " Speed. Item, slie hath more hairs than wit, and more faults than hairs, but more 
wealth than faults. 

Laiin. Stop there. She was mine, and not mine, twice or thrice in that article. 
Rehearse that once more. 

Speed. Item, she hath more hair than wit. 
Laun. "What 's next ? 
Speed. And more faults than hairs. 
Laun. That's monstrous ! Oh that that were out! 
Speed. But more wealth than faults. 
Laun. Why that word makes the faults gracious." 

Here the word but aUays the had precedent ; for which, without any shifting of its 
own intrinsic signification, it is as well qualified as to allay the (/ood. 
^ So Tasso, — 

" Am Oh, che mi dici ? 

SQvia m' attende, ignuda, e sola ? Tir. Sola, 
Se non quanto v' e Dafne, ch' e per noi. 
Am. Ignuda ella m' aspetta? Tir. Ignuda: MA — 
Am. Oime, che MA? Tu taci; tu m'uccidi." Aminta, att. 2. sc. 3. 
where the diiference of the construction in the English and the Italian is worth ohser- 
viiig ; and the reason evident, why in the question consequent to the conjunction, what 
is placed after the one, but before the other. 

Boot vjhat ?'\ C What more ? 

Bat what ? i ( Che Ma ? 

^ S. Johnson, and others, have mistaken the expression — To Boot — (which still re- 
mains in our language) for a substantive ; which is indeed the infinitive of the same 
verb of which the conjunction is the imperative. 

* " Perhaps it may be thought improper for me to address you on this subject. But 
a moment, my Lords, and it wiU evidently appear that you are equally blamcable for 
an omission of duty here also." 

This may be supposed an abbreviation of construction, for " But indulge me with a 
moment, my Lords, and it will," &c. ; but there is no occasion for such a supposition. 

^ Knott had said, — " How can it be in us a fundamental errour to say, the Scripture 
alone is not judge of controversies, seeing (notwithstanding this our belief) we use for 
interpreting of Scripture, all the means which they prescribe ; as prayer, conferring of 
places, consulting the originals," &;c. 

To which Chilli ngworth replies, 

" ^ou. prai/, BUT it is not that God would bring you to the true religion, but that he 
would confirm you in your own. You confer places, but it is that you may confirm, 
or colour over with plausible disguises your erroneous doctrines ; not that you may 
judge of them, and forsake them, if there be reason for it. You consult the origiuals, 
BUT you regard them not when they make against your doctrine or translation." 



713 APPENDIX. 

But Mr. Locke says, — " If it were his business to examine it (but) in its 
full latitude : " — and that lie — " intends not here a full explication of this 
sort 0^ signs." — And yet he adds, that — " the instances he has given in 
this one (but) may lead us into the contemplation of several actions of 
our minds in discoursing which it has found a way to intimate to others 
by these particles." And these, it must be remembered, are actions, or, 
as he before termed them, thoughts of our minds, for which, he has 
said, we have " either none or very deficient names." 

Now if it had been so, (which in truth it is not,) it was surely, for 
that reason, most especially the business of an Essay on Human Under- 
standing to examine these signs in their full latitude ; and to give a full 
explication of them. Instead of which, neither here, nor elsewhere, 
has Mr. Locke given any explication whatever. 

Though I have said much, I shall also omit much which might be 
added in support of this double etymology of but : nor should I have 
dwelt so long upon it but in compliment to Mr. Locke ; whose opinions 
in any matter are not slightly to be rejected, nor can they be modestly 
controverted without very strong arguments. 

None of the etymologists have been aware of this corrupt use of one 
word for two} 



In all these places, but {i. e. bot, or as we now pronounce that verb, Boot) only 
directs something to be added or supplied in order to make up some deficiency in 
Knott's expressions of "prayer, conferring of places," &c. And so far indeed as an 
omission of something is improper, but (by ordering its insertion) may be said to 
*' intimate a supposition in the mind of the speaker of something otherwise than it 
should be." But that intimation is only, as you see, by consequence ; and not by the 
intrinsic signification of the word but. 

^ Nor have etymologists been any more aware of the meaning or true derivation of 
the words corresponding with but in other languages. Vossius derives the Latin con- 
junction AT from aras ; and AST from AT, "inserto s." (But how or why s happens 
to be inserted, he does not say.) Now to what purpose is such sort of etymology ? 
Suppose it was derived from this doubtful word oras, — what intelligence does this 
give us ? "Why not as well stop at the Latin word at, as at the Greek word aras? 
Is it not such sort of trifling etymology (for I will not give even that name to what is 
said by Scaliger and Nunnesius concerning bed) which has brought all etymological 
inquiry into disgrace ? 

Vossius is indeed a great authority ; but, when he has nothing to justify an useless 
conjecture but a similarity of sound, we ought not to be afraid of opposing an appear- 
ance of reason to him. 

It is coiitrai-y to the customary progress of corruption in words to derive ast fi*om 
AT. Words do not gain, but lose letters in their progress: nor has unaccountable ac- 
cident any share in their corruption ; there is always a good reason to be given for 
every change they receive : and, by a good reason, I do not mean those cabalistical 
words. Metathesis, E])enthesis, &c., by which etymologists work such miracles; but at 
least a probable or anatomical reason for those not arbitrary operations. 
Adsit, Add, Asi, At. 

I am not at all afraid of being ridiculed for the above derivation, by any one who will 
give himself the trouble to trace the words (corresponding with But) of any language 
to tbeir source : though they should not all be quite so obvious as the French Mais, 
Ihc llalian Ma, tiie Spanish Mas, or the Dutch Maar. 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING. 713 

Minsliew, keeping only one half of our modern but in contemplation, 
has sought for its derivation in the Latin imperative Futa. 

Junius confines his explanation to the other half; which he calls its 
^^ primariam signiftcationem.'^ 

And Skinner, willing to embrace them both, found no better method 
to reconcile two contradictory meanings, than to say hardily that the 
transition from one^ to the other ^ was — "levi flexu ! " 

Junius says — "but, Chaucero t. c. v. 194. bis positum pro Sine. 
Primus locus est in summo columnas — ' but temperaunce in tene.' — Alter 
est in columnae medio ; 

' Thds golden carte with firy hemes bright 
Four yoked stedes, full different of hew, 
But haite or tiring through the spheres drew/ 

ubi, tamen perperam, primo bout pro but reposueram: quod iterum 
delevi, cum (sub finem ejusdem poematis) incidissem in hunc locum \ 

' But mete or drinke she dressed her to He 
In a darke corner of the hous alone.' 

atque adeo exinde quoque observare coepi frequentissimam esse hanc 
particulse acceptionem. In iEneide quoque Scotica passim occurrunt,-^ 
*BUT spot or fait.' 3. 58. — 'but ony indigence.' 4. 20. — 'but sentence 
or ingyne.' 5. 41. — 'principall poet but pere.' 9. 19. — atque ita porro. 
But videtur dictum quasi Be-ut, pro quo Angii dicunt without : unde 
quoque, hujus derivationis intuitu, praesens hujns particulse acceptio 
videbitur ostendere hanc esse primariam ejus significationem." 

The extreme carelessness and ignorance of Junius, in this article, is 
wonderful and beneath a comment. 

Skinner says, — " but, ut ubi dicimus — None but he ; — ab A.-S. Bure, 
Burnn, prater, nisi, sine : Hinc, levi flexu, postea coepit, loco anti- 
qui Anglo-Saxonici ^c, Sed, designare. Bu'ce autem et Butan tandem 
deflecti possunt a pr.sep. be, circa, vel beon, esse, et ute vel utan, 
/on*." 

WITHOUT. 

But (as distinguished from Bot) and without have both exactly the 
same meaning ; that is, in modern English, neither more nor less than 
Be-out. 

And they were both originally used indifferently either as conjunc- 
tions or prepositions. But later writers, having adopted the false notions 
and distinctions of language maintained by the Greek and Latin gram- 
marians, have successively endeavoured to make the English language 



^ Id est, a direction to leave out something. 
' Id est, a direction to superadd something. 



714 APPENDIX. 

conform more and more to the same rules. Accordingly without, in 
approved modern speech, is now entirely confined to the office of a Pre- 
position;^ and BUT is generally (though not always) used as a Con- 
junction, In the same manner as Nisi and Sine in Latin are distributed ; 
which do both likewise mean exactly the same, with no other difference 
than that, in the former the negation precedes, and in the other it follows 
the verb. 

Skinner only says, — " without, ab A.-S. wi^utan, extra." 

S. Johnson makes it a preposition, an adverb, and a conjunction ; and 
under the head of a Conjunction, says, — " without. Conjunct. Unless ; 
if not ; except. — Not in use."' 

Its true derivation and meaning are the same as those of but (from 
But an). 

It is nothing but the imperative pyfi^-utan, from the Anglo-Saxon 
and Gothic verb Peoja^an, ^^l}Cc}j j\.N" ; which in the Anglo-Saxon 
language is incorporated with the verb Beon, esse. 

AND. 

M. Casaubon supposes and to be derived from the Greek etra, 
postea. 

Skinner says — "Nescio an a Lat. adder e^ q. d. Add; interjecta per 
epenthesin n, ut in render^ a reddendo.^'' 

Lye supposes it to be derived from the Greek ert, adhuc, p'ceterea, 
etiam, quinetiam, insuper. 

I have already given the derivation, which, I believe, will alone stand 
examination. 

I shall only remark here, how easily men take upon trust, how willingly 
they are satisfied with, and how confidently they repeat after others, false 
explanations of what they do not understand. — Conjunctions, it seems, are 
to have their denomination and definition from the use to which they are 
applied : per accidens, essentiam. Prepositions connect words ; but — " the 
Conjunction connects or joins together sentences ; so as out of two to 
make one sentence. Thus — ' Fou and /, and Feter, rode to London^ is 
one sentence made up of three," &c. 

Weil ! So far matters seem to go on very smoothly. It is, 

** You rode, I rode, Peter rode'' 

But let us now change the instance, and try some others which are full 
as common, though not altogether so convenient. 



' It. is however used as a conjunction by Lord Mansfield, in Home's Trial, p. 56. 
" It cannot be read, without the Attorney-General consents to it." 

And yet, if this reverend Earl's authority may be sal'cly quoted for any thing, it 
must be for ivords. It is so unsound in matter of law, that it is frequently rejected 
even by himself. 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING. 715 

Two AND Two are four. 

A B and B C and C D form a triangle. 

John AND Jane are a handsome couple. 
Does A B form a triangle, B C form a triangle ? &c. — Is John a couple ? 
Is Jane a couple ? — Are two, four ? 

If the definition of a conjunction is adhered to, I am afraid that and, 
in such instances, will appear to be no more a conjunction, (that is, a 
connecter of sentences) than Though, in the instance I have given under 
that word ; or than But, in Mr. Locke's second instance ; or than Mse, 
when called by S. Johnson a Pronoun ; or than Since, when used for 
Sithence or for Sine. In short I am afraid that the grammarians will 
scarcely have an entire conjunction left : for I apprehend that there is 
not one of tliose words which they call conjunctions, which is not some- 
times used (and that very properly) without connecting sentences. 

LEST. 

Junius only says — "Lest, least, minimus, v. little.'' Under Ze«5^, 
he says — " Least, lest, minimus. Contractum est ex e\axi.(Tros. v. little, 
parvus." And under lAttle, to which he refers us, there is nothing to 
the pui-pose. 

Skinner says — " Lest, ab A.-S. Laej", minus, q. d. quo minus hoc fiat ^ 
S. Johnson says, — " Lest, Conj. (from the adjective Least) That not."' 
This last deduction is a curious one indeed ; and it would puzzle as 
sagacious a leasoner as S. Johnson to supply the middle steps to his 
conclusion from Least, (which always however means some) to " Tliat 
not " (which means none at all). It seems as if, when he wrote this, he 
had already in his mind a presentiment of some future occasion in which 
such reasoning would be convenient. As thus, — "The mother country, 
the seat of government, must necessarily enjoy the greatest share of 
dignity, power, rights, and privileges : an united or associated kingdom 
must have in some degree a smaller share ; and their colonies the least 
share ;" — That is (according to S. Johnson)^ None of any kind. 

It has been proposed by no small authority (Wallis followed by Lowth) 
to alter the spelling of lest to Least; and vice versa. " Multi," says 
Wallis, " pro Lest scribunt Least (ut distinguatur a conjunctione Lest, ne, 
ut non ;) verum omnino contra analogiara grammaticse. Mallem ego 
adjectivum lest, conjunctionem least scriberc." 

" The superlative Least,'' says Lowth, " ought rather to be written 



^ Johnson's merit ought not to be denied to him ; but his Dictionary is the most 
imperfect and faulty, and the least vahiable of any of his productions ; and that share 
of merit which it possesses makes it by so much the more hurtful. I rejoice however 
that, though the least valuable, he fomid it the most profitable : for 1 could never read 
his Preface without shedding a tear. 



716 APPENDIX. 

without the A. ; as Dr. Wallis hath long ago observed. The Conjunction 
of the same sound might be written with the A, for distinction." 

S. Johnson judiciously dissents from this proposal, but for no 
other reason, but because he thinks, — " the profit is not worth the 
change." 

Now though they all concur in the same etymology, I will venture 
to affirm that Lest, for Lesed, (as blest for blessed, &c.) is nothing else 
but the participle past of Lej'an, dimittere ; and, with the article That 
(either expressed or understood) means no more than Hoc dimisso or Quo 
dimisso. 

And, if this explanation and etymology of lest is right, (of which I 
have not the smallest doubt) it furnishes one caution more to learned 
critics, not to innovate rashly : Lest, whilst they attempt to amend a 
language, as they imagine, in one trifling respect, they mar it in others 
of more importance ; and, by their corrupt alterations and amendments, 
confirm error, and make the truth more difficult to be discovered by those 
who come after. 

Mr. Locke says, and it is agreed on all sides, that — " it is in the right 
use of these (Particles) that more particularly consists the clearness 
and beauty of a good stile," and that " these words, which are not 
trull/ by themselves the names of any ideas, are of constant and indis- 
pensable use in language ; and do much contribute to men's well ex- 
pressing themselves." 

Now this, I am persuaded, would never have been said, had these 
particles been understood : for it proceeds from nothing but the diffi- 
culty of giving any rule or direction concerning their use.: and that 
difficulty arises from a mistaken supposition that they are not " by them- 
selves, the names of any ideas : " and in that case indeed I do not see 
how any rational rules concerning their use could possibly be given. 
But I flatter myself that henceforward, the true force and nature of these 
words being clearly understood, the proper use of them will be so 
evident that any rule concerning their use will be totally unnecessary : 
as it would be thought absurd to inform any one that when he means 
to direct an addition, he should not use a word which directs to take 
away. 

I am induced to mention this in this place, from the very improper 
manner iw. which lest (more than any other conjunction) is often used 
by our best authors : those who are most conversant with the learned 
languages being most likely to make the mistake. — " You make use of 
such indirect and crooked arts as these to blast my reputation, and to 
possess men's minds with disaff'ection to my person ; lest peradventure, 
they might with some indifference hear reason from me." — ChiUbig- 
icorth's Preface to the Author of Charity maintained, &c. 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING. 717 

Here lest is well used, — "You make use of these arts:" — Why? 
The reason follows, — Lej^eb that, i. e. Hoc dimisso, — " men might hear 
reason from me." — Therefore, — you use these arts. 

Instances of the improper use of lest may be found in almost every 
author that ever wrote in our language ; because none of them have 
been aware of the true meaning of the word ; and have been misled by 
supposing it to be perfectly correspondent to some conjunctions in other 
languages, which it is not. 

Thus Ascham, in his Scholemaster, says, — " If a yong jentleman will 
venture himselfe into the companie of ruffians, it is over great a jeopardie, 
LEST their facions, maners, thoughts, taulke, and deedes will verie sone 
be over like." 

Any tolerable judge of English will immediately perceive something 
awkward and improper in this sentence; though he cannot tell why. 
Yet the reason will be very plain to him, when he knows the meaning 
of these unmeaning particles (as they have been called): for he will 
then see at once that lest has no business in the sentence ; there being 
nothing dimisso, in consequence of which something else would follow ; 
and that, if he would employ lest, the sentence must be arranged 
otherwise : 

As, — "Let not a young gentleman venture, &c. lest his manners, 
thoughts," &c. 

SINCE. 

Since is a very corrupt abbreviation ; confounding together different 
words and different combinations of words : and is therefore in modern 
English improperly made (like but) to serve purposes which no one 
word in any other language can answer; because the same accidental 
corruptions, arising from similarity of sound, have not happened in the 
correspondent words of any other language. 

Where we now employ since, was formerly (according to its respective 
signification) used, 

Sometimes, 

1. Seo^^an, Sio^^an, Se^San, Si^^an, Si^^en, Sithen, Sithence, 
Sithens, Sithnes, Sithns : 

Sometimes, 

2. 8yne, Sine, Sene, Sen, Syn, Sin : 

Sometimes, 

3. Seand, Seeing, Seeing-that, Seeing-as, Sens, Sense, Sence: 

Sometimes, 

4. Si^^e, 8i^, Sithe, Sith, Seen-that, Seen-as, Sens, Sense, Sence. 

Accordingly since, in modern English, is used four ways. Two, as a 
preposition, connecting (or rather affecting) words : and Two, as a con- 
junction, affecting sentences. 



718 APPENDIX. 

When used as a preposition, it has always the signification either of 
the past participle Seen joined to tlience, (that is, seen and thence for- 
ward-) — Or else it has the signification of the past participle Been only. 

When used as a conjunction, it has sometimes the signification of the 
present participle Seeing or Seeing -tliat ; and sometimes the signification 
of the past participle Seen or Seen-tJiat. 

As a preposition, 

1. Since (for Si^^an, Sithence, or Seen and thence forward) \ as, 

" Such a system of government as the present, has not been ventured 
on by any king since the expulsion of James the Second." 

3. Since (for Syne, Sene, or Seen) ; as, 

"Did George the Third reign before or since that example? " 

As a conjunction ; 

3. Since (for Seanb, Seeing, Seeing-as, or Seeing- that) ; as, 

"If I should labour for any other satisfaction but that of my own 
mind, it would be an effect of phrenzy in me, not of hope ; since it is 
not truth, but opinion, that can travel the world without a passport." 

4. Since (for Si^^e, Sith, Seen-as, or Seen-that) ; as, 

" Since death in the end takes from all, whatsoever fortune or force 
takes from any one; it were a foolish madness in the shipwreck of 
worldly things, where all sinks but the soitow, to save that." 

Junius says, — " Since that time, Exinde. Contractum est ex Angl. 
Sith thence^ q. d. sero post : ut Sith illud o> iginem traxerit ex illo 
S6ltfin, Sero ; quod habet Arg. Cod." 

Skinner says, — " Since, a Teut. Sinty Be%. Sind, Post, postea, post- 
quam. Doct. Th. H. putat deflexura a nostro Sithence. Non absurdum 
etiam esset declinare a Lat. Exhinc, e et h abjectis, et x A ci^l'ima muta- 
tione in s transeunte." Again he says, — " Sith ab A.-S. Si^^an, 
Sy^^an. Belg. Seyd, Sint, Post, post ilia, postea." 

After the explanation I have given, I suppose it unnecessary to point 
out the particular errors of the above derivations. 

Sithence and Sith, though now obsolete, continued in good use down 
even to the time of the Stuarts. 

Hooker in his writings uses Sithetice, Sith, Seeing, and Since. The 
two former he always properly distinguishes ; using Sithence for the true 
import of the Anglo-Saxon Si^'San, and Sith for the true import of the 
Anglo-Saxon Si'S^e. Which is the more extraordinary, because authors 
of the first credit had very long before Hooker's time, confounded tliem 
together; and thereby led the way for the present indiscriminate and 
corrupt use of since in all the four cases mentioned. 

Seeing Hooker uses sometimes, perhaps, (for it will admit a doubt) 
improperly. And Since (accordhig to the corrupt custom which has now 
universally prevailed in the language) he uses indifferently either for 
Sithence, Seen, Seeing, or Sith. 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING. 719 



THAT. 



There is something so very singular in the use of this Conjunction, as 
it is called, that one should think it would alone, if attended to, have 
been sufficient to lead the Grammarians to a knowledge of most of the 
other conjunctions, as well as of itself. — The use I mean is, that the con- 
junction THAT generally makes a part of, and keeps company with most 
of the other conjunctions. — If that, An that. Unless that, Though that^ 
But that, Withotit that. Lest that. Since that. Save that, Except that, &c. 
is the construction of most of the sentences where any of those conjunc- 
tions are used. 

Is it not an obvious question then, to ask, why this conjunction alone 
should be so peculiarly distinguished from all the rest of the same 
family ? And why this alone should be able to connect itself with, and 
indeed be usually necessary to almost all the others? So necessary, 
that even when it is compounded with another conjunction, and drawn 
into it so as to become one word, (as it is with sith and since,) we are 
still forced to employ again this necessary index, in order to precede 
and so point out the sentence which is to be affected by the other con- 
junction ? 

De, in the Anglo-Saxon, meaning that, it will easily be perceived 
that sith (which is no other than the Anglo-Saxon jfi^^e) includes 
That. But when since is (as I here consider it) a corruption for 
seeing-as and seen-as, I may be asked ; how does it then include that ? 
— In short, what is as ? For we can gather no more from the etymolo- 
gists concerning it, than that it is derived either from cos or from als : ^ 
but still this explains nothing : for what as is, or als, remains likewise a 
secret. 

The truth is, that as is also an Article ; and (however and whenever 
used in English) means the same as It, or That, or Which. In the 
German, where it still evidently retains its original signification and use, 
(as ^0 also does) it is written Es. 

It does not come from Als ; any more than Though, and Be-it, and 
If (or Gif), &c., come from Although, and Albeit, and Algif, &c. — 
For Als, in our old English, is a contraction of Al and Es or As : and 
this Al (which in comparisons used to be veiy properly employed be- 
fore the first es or as, but was not employed before the second) we now, 
in modern English, suppress. As we have also done in numberless 
other instances, where All, though not improper, is not necessary. 
Thus, 



says — " AS a Teut. Als, sicut, eliso, scil. propter cuplioiiiam, iutermcdio L." 



720 APPENDIX. 

" She glides away under the foamy seas, 
As swift AS darts or feather'd arrows fly." 
That is, 

*' She glides away (with) that swiftness, (with) which feather'd arrows fly." 
When in old Englisli it is written, 

"She 

Glidis away under the fomy seis, 
Als swift AS ganze or fedderit arrow fleis ; " 
Then it means, 

" With khl THAT swiftness, with which, &c." 

And now I liope I may for this time take my leave of Etymology ; for 
which. I confess myself to be but very slenderly qualified. Nor should 
I have even sought for those derivations which I have given, if reflection 
had not first directed me where to seek, and convinced me that I was 
sure easily to find them. Nor, having found them in one language only, 
should I have relied on that particular instance alone on which to build a 
general conclusion of the proof in fact. But I am confirmed in my 
opinion by having found the same method of explanation successful in 
many other languages ; and as I have before said, I know, a priori, that 
it must be so in all languages. 

After what I have said, you will see plainly why so many of the con- 
junctions may be used almost indiiferently (or with a very little turn of 
expression) for each other. And without my entering into the particular 
minutiae in the use of each, you will easily account for the slight differ- 
ences in the turn of expression, arising from different customary abbre- 
viations of construction. 

T will only give you one instance, and leave it with you for your en- 
tertainment : from which you will draw a variety of arguments and 
conclusions. 

"And soft he sighed, lest men might him hear. 
And soft he sighed, else men might him hear. 
Unless he sighed soft, men might him hear. 
But that he sighed soft, men might him hear. 
Without he sighed soft, men might him hear. 
Save that he sighed soft, men might him hear. 
Except he sighed soft, men might him hear. 
OuT-CEPT he sighed soft, men might him hear. 
Out-takb he sighed soft, men might him hear. 
If that he sigh'd not soft, men might him hear. 
And AN he sigh'd not soft, men might him hear. 
Set that he sigh'd not soft, men might him hear." 



According to this account which I have given of the Conjunctions 
(and which may also be given of the Prepositions) Lord Monboddo will 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING. 721 

appear extremely unfortunate in tlie particular care he has taken (part 
2. book i. c. 15.) to make an exception from the general rule he lays 
down (of the Verb's being the parent word of the whole language), and 
to caution the candid reader from imputing to him an opinion, that the 
Conjunctions were intended by him to be included in his rule ; or had 
any connexion whatever with Verbs. 

" This so copious derivation from the Verb in Greek, naturally leads 
one (says he) to suspect that it is the Parent word of the whole lan- 
guage : and indeed I believe that to be the fact. For I do not know 
that it can be certainly shewn that there is any word that is undoubt- 
edly a Primitive, which is not a Verb ; I mean a verb in the stricter 
sense and common acceptation of the word. — By this the candid reader 
will not understand that I mean to say that prepositions, conjunctions, 
and such like words, which are rather the pegs and nails that fasten the 
several parts of the language together, than the language itself, are 
derived from Verbs, or are derivatives of any kind." 

Indeed, in my opinion, he is not less unfortunate in his Eule than 
in his Exception. They are both equally unfounded : and yet as well 
founded as almost every other position which he has laid down in his 
two first volumes. The whole of which is perfectly worthy of that 
profound politician and philosopher, who (vol. i. p. 243.) esteems that 
to be the most perfect form, and, as he calls it, " the last stage of civil 
society," where Government leaves nothing to the free-will of indivi- 
duals, but interferes with the domestic, private lives of the citizens, and 
the education of their children ! Such would in truth be the last stage 
of civil society, in the sense of the lady in the comedy, whose lover 
having offered — " to give her the last proof of love, and marry her ; " — 
she aptly replied — " the last indeed : for there's an end of loving." 

But what shall we say to the bitter irony with which Mr. Harris 
treats the moderns in the concluding note- to his doctrine of Conjunc- 
tions ? Where he says, — " It is somewhat surprising that the politest 
and most elegant of the Attic writers, and Plato above all the rest, 
should have their works filled with particles of all kinds and with con- 
junctions in particular ; while in the modern polite works, as well of 
ourselves as of our neighbours, scarce such % word as a particle or con- 
junction is to be found. Is it that where there is connection in the 
meaning, there must be words had to connect ; but that where the con- 
nection is little or none, such connectives are of little use ? That houses 
of cards, without cement, may well answer their end, but not those 
houses where one would chuse to dwell ? Is this the cause ? Or have 
we attained an elegance to the antients unknown ? 

' Venimus ad summam Fortunae,' " &c. 

3 A 



722 APPENDIX. 

I say, that a little more reflection and a great deal less reading, a 
little more attention to common sense ^ and less blind prejudice for his 
Greek commentators, would have made him a much better grammarian, 
if not perhaps a philosopher. — What a strange language is this to come 
from a man, who at the same time supposes these particles and con- 
junctions to be words without meaning ! It should seem by this inso- 
lent pleasantry that Mr. Harris reckons it the perfection of composition 
and discourse to use a great many words without meaning I If so, per- 
haps Slander's language would meet with this learned gentleman's 
approbation : — 

" I keep but three men and a boy yet tiU my mother be dead ; But 
what though yet I live a poor gentleman born." 

Now here is cement enough in proportion to the building. It is plain 
however that Shakespeare (a much better philosopher by the bye than 
most of those who have written philosophical treatises) was of a very 
different opinion in this matter from IVIr. Harris. He thought the best 
way to make his zany talk unconnectedly and nonsensically, was to give 
him a quantity of these beautiful words without meaning, which are 
such favourites with Mr. Harris. 

I shall be told, that this may be raillery perhaps, but that it is neither 
reasoning nor authority : that this instance does not affect IVIr. Hams : 
for that all cement is no more fit to make a firm building than no cement 
at all : tliat Slender's discourse might have been made equally as uncon- 
nected without any particles, as with so many together : and that it is the 
proper mixture of particles and other words which Mr. Harris would 
recommend ; and that he only censures the moderns for being too spa- 
ring of particles. — To which I answer, that reasoning disdains to be 
employed about such affected airs of superiority and pretended ele- 
gance. But he shall have authority, if he pleases, his favourite author- 
ity; an antient, a Greek, and one too writing professedly on Plato's 
opinions, and in defence of Plato ; and which, if Mr. Harris had not 
forgotten, I am persuaded he would not have contradicted. He says, — 
" II n'y a ny beste, ny instrument, ny armeure, ny autre chose quelle 
qu'elle soit au monde, qui par ablation ou privation d'une siene propre 
partie, soit plus belle, plq,s active, ne plus doulce que paravant elle 
n'estoit, la oil I'oraison bien sou vent, en estans les Conjonctions toutes 
ostees^ a une force et efficace plus affectueuse, plus active, et plus es- 
mouvante. C'est pourquoy ceulx qui escrivent des figures de retorique 
louent et prisent granderaent celle qu'ils appellent delice : la oii ceulx 



^ The author would by no means be thought to allude to the commo7i sense of 
Doctors Oswald, Keid, and Beattie ; which appears to him to be sheer nonsense. 



LETTER TO MR. DUNNING. 723 

cy qui sont trop religieux et qui s'assubjettissent trop aux regies de la 
grammaire, sans ozer oster une seule conjonction de la commune fagon 
de parier, en sont a hon droit blasmez et repris, comme faisans un stile 
enerve, sans aucuue poiute d'affection, et qui lasse et donne peine a 
ouir." ^ 

And I hope this authority (for I will offer no argument to a writer of 
his cast) will satisfy the — " true taste ?[Tid judgemetit in writing ^^ of Lord 
Monboddo ; who with equal affectation and vanity has followed Mr. 
Harris in this particular ; and who, though incapable of writing a sen- 
tence of common English, really imagines that there is something 
captivating in his stile, and has gratefully informed us to whose 
assistance we owe the obligation. 

If these two gentlemen, whom I have last mentioned, should be capa- 
ble of receiving any mortification from the censure of one who professes 
himself an admirer of the — " vulgar and unlearned " Mr. Locke, I will 
give them the consolation of acknowledging that a real grammarian and 
philosopher, J. C. Scaliger, has even exceeded them in this mistake 
concerning the Particles : for he not only maintains the same doctrine 
which they have adopted ; but even attempts to give reasons a prior i^ 
why it is and must be so. 

If the generous and grateful (not candid) reader should think that I 
have treated them with too much asperity, to him I owe some justifica- 
tion. Let him recollect, then, the manner in which these gentlemen and 
the Common Sense Doctors ^ have treated the " vulgar, unlearned, and 
atheistical " Mr. Locke (for such are the imputations they cast upon that 
benefactor to his country) ; and let him condemn me, if he can. 

And thus, Sir, have I finished what I at first proposed ; namely, to 
prove that in the infonnation against Lawley there was not the smallest 
literal omission. In the elucidation of this I have been compelled to 
enter into a minute disquisition of some mistaken words, which ignorance 
would otherwise have employed in order to render a very plain position, 
ridiculous. I shall not however expect to escape ridicule ; for so very 
disgusting is this kind of inquiry to the generality, that I have often 
thought it was for mankind a lucky mistake (for it was a mistake) which 
Mr. Locke made when he called his book, an Essay on Human Under- 
standing. Eor some part of the inestimable benefit of that book has, 



^ Though the sound of the Greek would be more pleasing to Mr. Harris, I quote the 
bishop of AuxeiTe's translation ; because I have not the original with me in prison. At 
the same time it gives me an opportunity to remind their Lordships the Bishops of our 
days, of the language which that virtuous Prelate held to a Sovereign of France ; that, 
instead of being ready on all occasions to vote for blood and slaverj^ they may, from 
that example, learn a little more of their duly to their country and mankind. 

^ [Oswald, Reid, and Beattie. See p. 151, note -. — Ed.] 

3 A 2 



724 APPENDIX. 

merely on account of its title, reached to many thousands more than, I 
fear, it would have done, had he called it (what it is merely) a gram- 
matical Essay, or a treatise on Words or on Language. The human 
Mindi or the human Understanding ^ appears to be a grand and noble 
theme ; and all men, even the most insufficient, conceive That to be a 
proper object of their contemplation ; whilst inquiries into the nature of 
Language (through which alone they can obtain any knowledge beyond 
the beasts) are fallen into such extreme disrepute and contempt, that 
even those who '* neither have the accent of Christian, pagan, or man," 
nor can speak so many words together with as much propriety as 
Balaam's Ass did, do yet imagine Words to be infinitely beneath the 
concern of their exalted understandings ! Let these gentlemen enjoy 
their laugh. I shall however be very well satisfied if I do not meet with 
your disapprobation : and I have endeavoured studiously to secure 
myself from that, by avoiding to offend you with any the smallest com- 
pliment from the beginning to the end of this letter. It is not any to 
declare myself, with the greatest personal affection and esteem, your most 
obedient and obliged humble servant, 



JOHN HOKNE. 



King's-Bench Prison, 
April 31, 1778. 



IIN^DEX. 



Abal, 675. 

Abbaiare, Ital., 357. 

Abbaubare, Lat., 357- 

Abboyer, Fr., 357- 

Abject, 325. 

Ablative, 672. 

Ablaze, 270. 

Able, 675. 
* Aboard, 236, 270. 

Abode, 372. 

Abominable, 661. 

Abominevole, Ital., 665. 

Above, 247. 
'About, 241. xxii. 

Abroad, 271. 

Abstract, 322. 

Abstruse, 325. 

Abuse, 325. 

Accent, 316. 

Access, 323. 

Accident, 313, 315. 

Accordable, 661. 

Accordevole, Ital., 665. 

Accustom able, 666. 

Acquest, 323. 

Across, 236. 

Act, 313. 

Ad, Lat., 195. 

Adays, 271. 
—Addle, 554. 

Adept, 316. 
'Adieu, 263. 

Admissible, 658. 

Adown, 244. xxiv. 

Adrift, 252. 

Adulatory, 638. 

Adult, 316. 

Advent, 322. 

Adventure, 679. 

Adverse, 323. 

Adversus, Lat., 226. 

Advocate, 325. 

^lan, 623. 

Affable, 658. 

Affannare, Ital., 347. 

Affanno, Ital, 347. 

AfHx, 325. 

Afflux, 325. 

Affuera, Span., 178. 

Alirc, 272. 



Afoot, 268. 
After, 243. 
Against, 231. xx. 
Agast, 253. 

Aggradevole, Ital., 665 
Agbast, 253. 
Ago, 254. 
Agon, 254. 
Agone, 254. 

Agrarian, 638. ^ 

Agreeable, 661. 
Agrestic, 638. 
Ague, 253. 
Aiblian, 555. 
Ail, 554. 

Aiae-nriKov, 663, 670, 675. 
AKTd-nTOf, 663, 670, 675. 
■^A-jar, On-char, 442, 445. 
Albeit, 70. 
Ale, 622, 623. 
Alert, 318. 
Alerte, Fr., 319. 
Algate, 94. 
Algif, 719. 
A I'herte, Fr., 319. 
Alive, 272. 
Allegiance, 322. 
Air erta, Ital., 318. 
AUes, 95. 
Alley, 322. 
Alliance, 322. 
Ally, 322. 
Alms, 639. 
Aloft, 273. 
Alone, 290. 

Along, 231. Along of, xx. 
Alo«, 623. 
Als, 148, 719. 
Amabo, Lat., 629. 
Amatory, 638. 
Amatns, Lat., 655. 
Ambic, 666. 
Ambulare, Lat., 666. 
Amf TO, Ital., 629. 
Amiable, 658. 
Amicable, 661, 
Amichevole, Ital., 665, 669. 
Amid, 231. 
Amidst, 231. 
Among, 226. xx. 



Amongst, 226. 
Amorevole, Ital., 665. 
Amorous, 638. 
Amphibious, 637. 
Amyable, 659. 
An, 53, 70, 78, 81, et seqq. 

690, 698. 
Analytic, 672. 
Anca, ftal. & Span., 571. 
And, 70, 117, 714. 
Anew, 273. 
Angel, 313, 315. 
An-honge, 228. 
An if, 82. 
Anights, 272. 
Anima, Lat., 315. 
Animus, Lat., 315. 
Anniversary, 638. 
Annual, 638. 
Annular, 638. 
Anon, 292. 
Aperitive, 672. 
Apologetic, 672. 
Apostle, 313, 322. 
Appetite, 326. 
Applause, 326. 
Apposite, 319. 
Appulse, 322. 
Apt, 316. 
Aquatic, 638. 
Aqueduct, 321. 
Aqueous, 638. 
Aquiline, 638. 
Aquilon, Spaa., 601. 
Arable, 658. 
Arare, Lat., 529. 
Aringa, Ital., 507. 
Armee, Fr., 322. 
Army, 322. 
Around, 236. 
Arow, 274. 
Aroynt, 482. 
Army, 470. 
As, 147. 
Aside, 236, 270. 
Askant, 259. 
Askew, 259. 
Asleep, 274. 
Aspect, 324. 
Assailant, 322. 



726 



INDEX. 



Assault, 322. 

Assent, 325. 

Asseth, 276. 

Assignee, 326. 

Assize, 825. 

Assizes, 325. 

Ast, Lat., 113. 
« Astound, 260. 

Astraba, Lat., 590. 

Astral, 638. 

Astray, 258. 

Astride, 236. 

Asunder, 257. 
-'Aswoon, 259. 

At, Lat., 113. 

Ate, 373. 

Athree, 290. 
^Athwart, 226. 

Atom, 322. 

At once, 288. 

Atte, attan, 291, 593. 

Attiltrer, Fr., 352. 

Attribute, 313. 

Atwist, 259. 

Atwo, 290. 

Audiam, Lat., 629. 

Audible, 658. 

Audibo, Lat., 629. 

Auditory, 637. 

Auditus, 655. 

Aught, 274. 

Aumone, Fr., 639. 

Aura, Lat., 530. 

Auricular, 637. 

Auxiliary, 639. 

Avacciare, Ital., 573. 

Avaccio, Ital., 573. 

Available, 661. 

Avant, Fr., 187. 

Avauti, Ital., 187. 

Avast, 573. 

Avec, Fr., 173. 

Avenue, 322. 

Averse, 323. 

Awake, 574. 

Award, 223. 

Awhile, 274. 

Awry, 259. 
' Aye,* 294. 



Bacan, 354. 
Bacon, 354. 
Bad, 357. 
Bait, 390. 
Ballad, 323. 
Ballast, 449, 
Ballate, Ital, 
Ballet, 323. 
Ban, 357. 
Band, 389. 
Bandctto, 318 
Bandite, 318. 



323. 



Banditti, 318. 
Bane, 357. 
To Bar, 435. 
Bar, 435. 
Barbarity, 436. 
Barbarous, 436. 
Barbican, 436. 
Bargain, 435. 
Barge, 435. 
Bark, 435. 
Barken, 435. 
Barmekiu, 436. 
Barn, 435. 
Baron, 436. 
Barren, 354. 
Barrier, 435, 
Barrow, 436. 
Batch, 435. 
Batful, 390. 
Bath, 619. 
Battel, 390. 
Bay, 357, 464. 
Bead, 502. 
Bearable, 667. 
Beam, 356. 
Because, 72. 
Bed, Bebbian, 584. 
Bedstead, 240. 
Before, 220. 
Begon, 373, 374. 
Behind, 220. 
Behoveable, 666. 
Being that, 73. 
Be it, 70. 
Belike, 268. 
Belong, 234. xx. 
Below, 220. 
Be-lycan, 449. 
Beneath, 220. 
Benefit, 321. 
Benna, Lat., 463. 
Bent, 352. 

Beojisan, Byjigan, 
Beojin, 357. 
Bergauf, Germ., xxviii. 
Beshrew, 459. 
Beside, 220. 
Besides, 220. 
Between, 220. 
Betwixt, 220. 
Beyond, 222. 
Biasmevole, Ital., 665, 
Bible, 666. 
Biblium, Lat., 666. 
Bibban, 502. 
Biennial, 638. 
Binn, 462. 
Bird, 564. 
Birth, 615. 
Bit, 394. 
Bituminous, 638. 
Bivouac, 573. 



435 



668. 



Blameable, 668. 

Blameful, 668. 

Blast, 450. 

Blaze, 450. 
4 Blind, Bhunan, 334. 

Bliss, 540. 

Blith, 540. 

Block, 449. 

Blot, 447. 

Blow, 622. 

Blowth, 622. 

Blunt, 430. 

Boar, 359. 

Board, 364, 564. 

Boaco, 357. 

Bobbel, Dutch, 666. 

Bod, 373, 374. 

Bold, 394. 

Bolt, 394. 
--Bond, 375, 376, 389. 
-^"Booth, 619. 

Borh, 438. 

Borhs-older, 486. 

Born, 356. 
«[^Borough, 437. 

Borowe, 436. 

Borwe, 457- 

Bot, 70, 100. 

Bote, 373, 376. 

Bove, 247. 

Bough, 464. 

BovAo/xai, 628. 

Bound, 389. 

Bow, 464. 

Bracca, Lat., 490. 

Brachium, 490. 

Brack, 489. 

Braide, 336. 
4- Brand, 327. 
•-*| Brand-new, 294. 

Brandy, 422. 

Brat, 565. 
*f Brawn, 358, 359, 364. 

Breach, 489. 
^ Bread, 334, 416. 

Breadth, 620. 

Break, 488. 

Breech, 488. 

Breeches, 66, 488. 

Breed, 465. 

Bren, 422. 

Brid, 564. 

Bride, 565. 

Bridegroom, 499. 

Brim, 498. 

Briser, Fr., 522. 

To Brit, 523. 

Broach, 488. 

Broad, 364, 564. 

Brodo, Ital., 619. 

Bronze, 423. 

Bronzo, Ital., 423. 



INDEX. 



727 



Brood, 565. 

Brook, 488. 

Broth, 619. 
"~Brown, 422. 

Bracknei", 82. xi. 

Bruise, 522. 

Bruit, 522. 

Brumal, 638. 

Brun, Fr., 422. 

Bruno, Ital., 422. 

Brunt, 422, 423. 

Bubble, 666. 

Buildens, 394. 

Buildings, 394. 

Bundle, 390. 

Burgess, 436. 

Burgh, 436. 

Burial, 436. 

Burrow, 486. 

Busy, 532. 
^ But, 70, 100, 175, 705. 
'^Buxom, 464. 
''By, 218. 

By5an,Bo5b,Be:ah,464. 

Bylban, 394. 

Ca, Ital., 163. 

Cable, 666. 

Cadaverous, 637. 

Cage, 586. 

Cage, Tr., 586. 

Caiare, Lat., 586. 

Calere, Ital., 484. 

CaUidus, Lat., 484. 

Canine, 638. 

Cant, 316. 

Cantata, 316. 

Canto, 316. 

Cantus, Lat., 389. 

Capable, 661. 

Capevole, Capace, Ital., 665 

Capillary, 637. 

Capital,'637. 

Car, 442, 443. 

Car, Fr., 209. 

Carbo, Lat., 442, 444. 

Cardiac, 637- 

Cardinal, 442, 638. 

Cardo, Lat., 442, 444. 

Caritatevole, Ital., 665. 

Carnal, 637. 

Carnivorous, 637. 

Carpenter, 617. 

Carrus, Lat., 442. 

Cart, 443. 

Case, 315. 

Cassander, 82, 126. xi. 

Cast, 400. 

Cathartic, 672. 

Caustic, 672. 

Celestial, 638. 

Cetaceous, 638. 



^Chaceable, 660. 

Chair, 442. 

Chair-man, 442. 

Chaloir, Jr., 484. 
"Chance, 313, 315. 

Chanceable, 666, 669. 

Chanceful, 668. 

Changeable, 669. 

Changeful, 669. 

Chap, 451, 546. 

Chapman, 546. 

Chaps, 451. 

Char, 442, 445. 

Characteristics, 672. 
-4^harcoal, 442. 

Chare, 442. 

Chariot, 442. 

Charioteer, 442. 

Chai-itable, 661. 
,4~JChar-wonian, 442. 

Chaunt, 316. 

Cheap, 546. 

Chewi-, 442. 

Chez, Fr., 160. xxv. 

Cheze, Fr., 162. 

Chief, 637. 

Chier, Fr., 397. 

Chill, 554. 

Chode, 371. 

Choice, 455. 

Chop, 546. 

To Chop, 546. 

Chronical, 638. 

Church, 314. 

Churn, 357. 

Chur-wonn, 442. 

Circuit, 325. 

Circumspect, 324. 

Clack, 501. 

Clause, 320. 

Cleft, 348. 

Click, 501. 

Cliff, 348. 

Clift, 348. 

Cling, 376. xxi. 

Clock, 501. 

Clomb, 371. 

Clonge, 373, 376. 

Close, 320. 

Closet, 320. 

Cloud, 447. 

Clough, 432. 

Clout, 432. 

Clouted, 433. 

Clutch, 570. 

Clutches, 570. 

Codardo, Ital., 333. 

Coercive, 672. 

Cognizable, 658. 

Cold, 552. 

Collateral, 637. 

Collect, 323. 



Colorevole, Ital., 665. 
Colourable, 661, 669. 
Colpevole, Ital., 665. 
Combat, 326. 
Comfortable, 661. 
Committee, 321. 
Common Sense, 151. 
Compact, 326. 
Companionable, 666. 
Composite, 319. 
Compost, 319. 
Compromise, 321. 
Comrade, 322. 
Conceit, 325. 
Concise, 325. 
Concordable, 661. 
Concordevole, Ital., 665. 
Concourse, 325. 
Concubine, 411. 
Conducevole, Ital., 665. 
Conducible, 661. 
Conduct, 321. 
Conduit, 321. 
Conflict, 326. 
Confluent Words, 222. 
Conflux, 325. 
Confortable, Fr., 665.^ 
Confortevole, Ital., 665. 
Congenial, 638. 
Conjugal, 639. 
Connubial, 639. 
Conquest, 323. 
Conscript, 325. 
Consecutive, 672. 
Consent, 325. 
Conspicuous, 637. 
Constraint, 323. 
Contact, 325. 
Contemptible, 658. 
Content, 324. 
Contents, 324. 
Conterminous, 638. 
Context, 325. 
Continent, 324. 
Contract, 322. 
Contrite, 325. 
Convenable, 661. 
Convenevole, Ital., 665. 
Convent, 322. 
Converse, 323. 
Convert, 323. 
Convict, 325. 
Cool, 552. 
Copious, 639. 
Cordial, 637- 
Corporal, 637. 
Corporeal, 637. 
Correct, 324. 
Cosmetic, 672. 
Costume vole, Ital, 665. 
Couard, Fr., 333. 
Counterfeit, 321. 



728 



INDEX. 



Counterview, 323. 

Course, 325. 

Covenant, 322. 
—sCoward, 332. 

Cras, Lai., 460. 

Craveu, 353. 

Credence, 326. 

Credenda, 677- 

Credible, 660. 

Credit, 326. 

Credulous, 638. 

Crescere, Lat., 529. 

Crescive, 672. 

Crew, 623. 

Crisp, 542. 

Crispare, Lat., 529. 

Critic, 6? 2. 

Crowd, 623. 

Crucifix, 325. 

Crum, 534. 

Crumble, 666. 

Crural, 637. 

To Crush, 583. 

Cryptic, 672. 

Cubital, 637. 

Cuckold, 316. 

To Cucol, 316. 

Cud, 331. 

Culinary, 638. 

Culpable, 639, 658, 661, 
. Culprit, 322. 

Curare, Lat., 529. 

Curse, 360. 

Customable, 661. 

Cutaneous, 637- 

Eyjian, 442. 

Dabchick, 542. 
Dam, 555. 
Damnare, Lat., 529. 
Dastard, 332. 
Date, 317. 
Dative, 672. 
Dawn, 356, 442. 
Day, 442. 
Deal, Dffilan, 494. 
Dear, 612. 
Dearth, 612. 
Debate, 326. 
Debt, 313, 317. 
Decay, 315. 
Deceit, 325. 
Deceitful, 668. 
Deceivabic, 668. 
Decern, Lat., 455. 
Dechirer, IV., 429. 
Decree, 306, 325. 
Deed, 542. 
Deep, 542. 
Default, 324. 
Defeat, 321. 
Defect, 321. 



To Defile, 487, 611. 

Definite, 325. 

Degree, 325. 

Aeiyos, 454. 

Ae«:a, 459. 

Delectable, 661, 668. 

Delegate, 325. 

Delere, 529. 

Delightful, 668. 

Dell, 494. 

Demise, 321, 

Demui', 324. 

Demman, 556. 

Denken, Dunken, Germ, 
292. xxxi. 

Dental, 637. 

Deodand, 676, 677. 

Deposit, 319. 

Depot, Pr., 319. 

Depth, 620. 

To Dere, 612. 

Derelict, 324. 

Derriere, Fr., 187. 

Desert, 313, 350. 

Desiccative, 672. 

Despicable, 658. 

Despotic, 672. 

Destinee, Fr., 314. 

Destiny, 313, 314. 

Destitute, 325. 

Desultory, 639. 

Detersive, 672. 

Detinue, 324. 

Devious, 638. 

Devout, 324. 

Dew, Deapian, 416. 
Dexterous, 637- 
Dialectic, 672. 
Didactic, 672. 
Dies, Lat., 530. 
Digital, 637. 
Dike, Dician, 535, 
DUettevole, Ital., 665. 
Dim, 535. 
Din, 533. 
Ding Dong, 525. 
Dint, 533. 

Dip, Dippan, 246, 542. 
Dii-ect, 324. 
Diritto, Ital., 304. 
Dims, Lat., 530, 614. 
Discordable, 661. 
Discordevole, 665. 
Discourse, 325. 
Discreet, 325. 
Dispute, 326. 
Dissemble, 666, 696. 
Dissent, 325. 
Dissimulare, Lat., 666, 
Dissimule, 669. 
Dissynmlcd. 669. 
Distinct, 325. 



District, 323. 

Disuse, 325. 

To Dit, DyxTan, 447. 

Ditch, 535. 

Ditto, 317. 

Ditty, 318. 

Dim-etic, 672. - 

Diurn^ 638. 

Dive, 246, 542. 

Divers, 323. 

Diverse, 323. 

Dividend, 677. 

Do, 193. 

Docile, 658. 

Doctus, Lat., 655. 

Dole, 494. 

Dollar, 497. 

Dolorous, 638. 
t Dolt, 556. 

Domestic, 638. 

Dominical, 638. 

Doom, 565. 
^ Dot, 447. 

Dotard, 463. 

Dotterel, 463. 

Double, 666. 

Dough, 416. 

Doughty, 624. 

Doule, 494. 

Dowle, 494. 

Down, 244. xxiv. 

Drab, 414. 

Drad, 373. 

Drain, 469. 

Drastic, 672. 

Draught, 352. 

Drift, 349. 

Dripping, 395. 

Dritto, Ital., 304. 

Droict, Fr., 304. 

Droit, Fr., 304. 

Droue, 469, 

Dronk, 373, 377- 

Drop, 373, 395. 

Dross, 476. 

Drought, 615. 
Drove, 372. 
Drudge, 558. 
Drug, 615. 
Drugs, 615. 
Drum, 450. 
Druuk, 391. 
Dry, 469. 
Duct, 321. 
Ductile, 658. 
Due, 317. 
Dull, 556. 
^Dumb, 555. 
J. DunibskaUe, Swed., 532. 
I Dun, 533. 

! Dung, Dynjan, 524. 
' Duplex, Lat., 312. 



INDEX. 



729 



Duplum, Lat., 666. 
Durable, 661. 
Durevole, Ital., 665. 
During, 236. 
Dux, Lat., 312. 
Dpinan, (Dwine, Dwindle) 

456. 
Dyche, 535. 
Dybejiian, 463. 
Dyke, 535. 

Earth, 617. 
-East, 600. 
Ecart, Fr., 429. 
Ecclesiastical, 639. 
Echelon, Fr., 483. 
Ecot, Fr., 396. 
Ecume, Fr., 534. 
Edict, 306, 318. 
Effect, 321. 
Effeminate, 63?. 
Egregious, 638. 
Egress, 325. 
Ei (x-n, 91. 
Eke, 70. 92, 703. 
Elastic, 672. 
Eld, 450. 
Elect, 323. 
Eleemosynary, 639. 
Eligible, 658. 
Eloquent, 637. 
Else, 70, 95, 133, 136, 704 
Emetic, 672. 
Emot, Swed., 231. 
Emulous, 637. 
Endeinial, 639. 
Energetic, 672. 
•Enough, 260. 
Entendable, 661. 
Enterprize, 322. 
Entry, 322. 
Ephemeral, 638. 
Epidemical, 039. 
Epistle, 322. 
Equestrian, 638. 
Equinoctial, 638. 
Ercta, Ital., 318. 
Erd, 618. 
Erde, Germ., 618. 
Erect, 318. 
epian, 529. 
Erta, Ital., 318. 
Eruptive, 672. 
Escaillc, Fr., 477, 483. 
Eschalotte, Fr., 477, 483. 
Escheat, 315. 
Eschelle, Fr., 477, 483. 
Escot, Fi-., 396. 
Escume, Fr., 534. 
Espan, Fr., 506. 
Esquisse, Fr., 396. 
Essentia], 637. 



Estage, Fr., 513. 
Este, Span., 601. 
Esteem, 336. 
Estival, 638. 
Estoc, Fr., 469. 
Estreat, 322. 
Estribo, Span., 519. 
Etage, 509, 513. 
Etourdi, Fr., 440. 
Etsi, Lat., 99. 
Eughen, 359. 
Evanouir, Fr., 346. 
Event, 322. 
Exact, 326. 
Excess, 323. 
Excise, 325. 
Excusable, 660. 
Exempt, 322. 
Exit, 325. 
Expanse, 313. 
Expence, 326. 
Expert, 324. 
Expletive, 672. 
Export, 326. 
Express, 326. 
Exquisite, 323. 
Exscvipt, 325. 
Extent, 323. 
Extinct, 325. 
Extract, 322. 

Fable, 666. 
Fabula, Lat., 666. 
Facile, 658. 
Fact, 313, 321. 
Factm-us, 680. 
Fain, 260. 

Faint, 346, 347, 431. 
Faith, 616. 
False, 313. 324. 
Fanciful Etymologies, 66. 
Faner, Fr., 346, 431. 
Fang, 567. 
Fangc, Fr., 846. 
Fango, Ital., 346. 
Fantastic, 672. 
Farewell, 263. 
Farinaceous, 638. 
Fart, Eajian, 350, 351. 
Farthing, 321. 
Fastuous, 638. 
Fat, 550, 
Fate, 313, 314. 
Fatum, Lat., 314. 
Faugh, 430. 
Fault, 313, 324. 
Fauxbourg, Fr., 178. 
Fav ore vole, Ital., 665. 
Favourable, 661. 
Favourite, 322. 
Fca-bcrry, 602. 
Feasible, 658. 



Feat, 821. 
Federal, 639. 
Femt, 347. 
Feline, 638. 
Female, 637- 
Feminine, 637. 
Femoral, 637. 
Fen, 346, 431. 
Se Fener, Fr., 346, 431. 
Fenowed, 346. 
Festival, 638. 
Festive, 638. 
Fetch, 567. 
Fiducial, 638. 
Fie, 285. 
-Field, 330, 331. 
Fiend, Fian, 313, 337- 
Fifth, 620. 
Figere, Lat., 529. 
To FHe, 487, 611. 
Filth, 611. 
Final, 638. 
Fine, 325. 
Finger, 567. 
Finite, 325. 

Pinie, Finnig, 346. xxxii. 
Fire-new, 294. 
Fiscal, 639. 
Fit, 321. 
Fixob, 624. 
Flamma, 423. 
Flavus, 423. 
Flaw, 583. 
Flong, 373, 377. 
Flood, 329. 
Flout, 487. 
Flow, 373, 378. 
Fluere, Lat., 528. 
Flux, 325. 
Foam, 564. 
Foe, 430. 
Foedus, Lat., 530. 
Fob, 430. 
FoUa, Ital., 523. 
Fommelen, Dutch, 666. 
Fond, 373, 377. 
Food, 550. 
Foothot, 269. 
For, 178 etseq., 198 tf/ 

seqq., xvii. 
Forbcry, 178. 
Forbode, 373 ^^ seqq. 
Forceful, 668. 
Forcible, 661, 008. 
Ford, 433. 
For-do, 275. xvii. 
Foreseen thai, 73. 
Fore, xix. 
Forfeit, 321. xvii. 
Foris, Lat., 178. 
Form, 582. 
Forma, Lat., 582. 



730 



INDEX. 



Porniidable, 658. 
Pors, Tt., 178, 275. ' 
Forsbourg, Yr., 178. 
'Forth, 275. 
Torzevole, Ital., 665. 
Posse, 326. 
Poul, 487. 
Poulle, Pr., 523. 
Powl, 564. 
Prail, 658. 
Prame, 582. 
Praternal, 637. 
Priant, Pr., 337. 
Prid-borg, Germ., 437. 
Priend, 337. 
Prom, 184. 
Prost, 450. 
Pruit, 324. 
PuU, 523. 
Pumble, 666. 
Puori, Ital., 178. 
Purtive, 639. 
Puscus, Lat., 423. 
Pusible, 658. 
Puture, 679. 
Patra-us, Lat., 680. 
Pynisean, 346. 

Gabbia, Ital., 586. 
Gadso, 277. 
Gag, 586. 
Gage, 586. 
Gage, Pr., 586. 
Gaggia, Ital., 586. 
Gain, 519. 
Gap, 451. 
Gape, 451. 
Garden, 508. 
Garland, 508. 
Garrulous, 637. 
Garter, 508. 
Garth, 619. 
Gaud, 502. 
Gaudium, Lat., 530. 
-4^aunt, 351. 
General, 638. 
Generic, 638. 
Genitive, 672. 
Genitive absolute, 265. 
Geogu^S, 624. 
Gestern, Germ., 522. 
Get, 521. 
Gewe, 79. 
Gewgaw, 502. 
Ghirlanda, Ital., 509. 
Giallo, Ital., 423. 
Gialne, Pr., 423. 
Giardino, Ital., 509. 
Gie, 81. 
Gien, 81. 

Gif, Gipan, 52, 78. 
Giffis, 79. 
Gift, 347. 



Gin, 81. 

Giogo, Ital., 450. 
Girdle, 508. 
Girdlestead, 240. 
Girth, 508, 611. 
Gisteren, Dutch, 522. 
Glacial, 638. 

Glade, 447. 

Glasen, 358. 
^ 'Gleam, 583. 

Glode, 373, 379. 

Gloom, 583. 

Go, 254, 255. 

Gon, 254. 

Gone, 254. 

Gonna, Ital., 564. 

Good, 357. 
^Gooseberry, 602, 603. 

Gorse, 602. 

Gove, 373, 378. 

Gown, 563. 

Gradual, 639. 

Graduate, 325. 

Graff, 586. 

Graft, 586. 

Grapple, 539. 

Grass, 360, 585. 

Gratuitous, 639. 

Grave, 586. 

Green, 423. 

Gregarious, 638. 

Gremial, 637- 

Grey, 423. 

Grim, 534. 

Grimgribber, 38. vi. 

Grip, Gjiipan, 539. 

Grist, 582. 

Grommelen, Dutch, 666. 

Groom, 499. 

Groove, 586. 

Grosselbeere, Germ., 603. 

Grot, 586. 

Grotta, Ital., 587. 

Grotto, 586. 

Grove, 586. 

Growth, 615. 

Grub, 558. 

Grudge, 558. 

Grum, 534. 

Grumble, 666. 

Grunuire. Lat., 529. 

Gryth, 624. 

Guarantee, 436. 

Guaranty, 436. 

Guard, 436. 

Gude, 357. 

Guile, 548. 

Guille, Pr., 548. 

Guilt, 548. 

Guirlande, Pr., 509. 

Gull, 548. 

Gun, 534. 

Guttural, 637. 



Gymnastic, 673. 

Habere, Lat., 528. 
Habilis, Lat., 675. 
Habnab^ 267- 
)p8ej:e,'417. " 

624. 
J^apen, 353, 417. 
Haft, 349. 
Hale, 587. 

Hall, 587. 

Les HaUes, Pr., 590. 
fl Halt, 263. 

Hanche, Pr., 571. 

Hand, 566. 

Handle, 566. 

Handsel, 507. 

J^angan, 571. 

Hank, 570. 

Harangue, 507- 

Hard, 373. 

Harlot, 410. 

Harm, 622, 623. 

Hat, 367. 

Hauberg, Pr., 436. 

Hauberk, 436. 

Haven, 367- 

Haughty, 638. 

Haunch, 570. 
H-Head, 329, 367. 

To Heal, 589. 

Health, 612. 

Hearse, 548. 

Heat, 551. 

Heaven, 313, 353, 367- 

Hebdomadal, 638. 

Heel, 587. 

Heft, 349, 367. 

Heigth, 620. 

Hell, 313, 587. 

Help, 543. 

Hendere, Lat., 528. 

Herd, 476. 

Heritable, 658. 

J^ejija^, 624. 

Hesternus, Lat., 519, 522, 
530. 

Het, 340. 

To Hie, 628. 

Hight, 342. 

Hildcn, 541. 

Hilding, 541. 

Hill, 587. 

Hilt, 350. 

Him list, Him ought, xxxi. 
-f Hinge, 570. 

Hint, 566. 

Hit, 339, et seqq. 

hAAlHS, )?iap, 

);lapojib, j^lapbij, 
417, 418. 



INDEX. 



731 



Jjlsej-ran, 449. 

Jjliban, 447. 

Hoar, 554. 

Hoard, 476. 

Hodiernal, 688. 

Hold, 587. 

Hole, 587. 

Holt, 587. 

Home, 563. 

Homestead, 239. 

Hone, 563. 

Honorevole, Ital., 665. 

Honom-able, 661. 

Hood, 367. 

Hoof, 367. 

Hore, 409. 

Hoi-mis, Fr., 179. 

Hors, Ft., 178. 

Horsley, 215. 

Horse, 514. 

Hostile, 637. 

Hot, 551. 

Hovel, 367. 

Howl, 497. 

Hove, Howve, 867. 

Hiigel, Germ., 587. 

Huff, 367. 

Htdl, 587. 

Human, 637. 

Humble, 638, 666. 

Humeral, 637. 

Humile, Lat., 666. 

Hunger, 533. 

pnma.^, j^unrno^e, 624. 

Hurdle, 476. 

Hurst, 548. 

Hurt, 533. 

Husband, 389. 

})u^e, 624. 

j)yiv6, 624, 

Hypothetic, 672. 

Ibland, Swed., 229. 
Iblandt, Dan., 229. 
Ibo, Lat., 628. 
Idle, 554. 
Uvai, 628. 

If, 52, 70, 78, 688. x. 
If case, 74. 
Ijja'S, 624. 
Igneous, 638. 
Ignominious, 639. 
Ignorabilis, Lat., 662. 
Ill, 554. 
lUicit, 325. 
Imaginative, 673. 
Imellem, Dan., 229. 
Immense, 326. 
Immiscible, 658^ 
Immutable, 658. 
Imod, Dau., 231. 
Imp, 536. 



Imperative, 672. 
Imperceptible, 658. 
Impersonal verbs, 292, 559, 

XXX. 

Impervious, 638. 
Implacable, 658. 
Import, 326. 
Impossible, 660. 
Impost, 316. 

Impracticable, 658. ♦ 

Impregnable, 658. 
Impress, 326. 
Improve, 86. 
Impulse, 322. 
In, 250. 

Ing, QdI, Add. Notes, 
Inaccessible, 658. 
Inadmissible, 658. 
In case, 72, 79. 
Incense, 313. 
Incentive, 673. 
Inceptive, 672. 
Inchlnevole, Ital., 665. 
Inchoative, 672. 
Incident, 315. 
Inclinable, 661. 
Incognito, 322. 
Incombustible, 658. 
Incommensurable, 658. 
Incompatible, 658. 
Incorrigible, 658. 
Incredible, 658. 
Incurable, 660. 
Indefatigable, 658. 
Tndefeisible, 658. 
Indelible, 658. 
Index, 312. 
Indigent, 639. 
Indivisible, 658. 
Indubitable, 658. 
Ineffable, 658. 
Inevitable, 658. 
Inexorable, 658. 
Inexplicable, 658. 
Inexpugnable, 658. 
InfaUible, 658. 
Infandum, Lat., 678. 
Infant, 637. 
Infantine, 637. 
Infinite, 325, 638. 
Infinitive, future, 192, 266, 

678, 680. xxix. 
Inflexible, 658. 
Influx, 325. 
Inforth, 276. 
Ingress, 325. 
Inguinal, 637. 
Inhabit, 338, 339. 
Inimical, 637. 
Inimitable, 658. 
Initial, 638. 
Innocence, 313, 315. 



Inquest, 323. 
Insane, '638. 
Insatiable, 658. 
Inscrutable, 658. 
Insect, 322. 
Insensible, 663. 
Insidious, 638. 
Insipid, 637. 
Insolible, 659. 
Instead, 239. 
Instinct, 325. 
Institute, 306, 325. 
Insular, 638. 
Insult, 322. 
Insurgent, 324. 
InteUect, 323. 
Intellective, 672. 
Intelligible, 658. 
Intendevole, Ital., 665. 
Intense, 323. 
Intent, 323. 
Intercom-se, 325. 
Interdict, 318. 
Interminable, 658. 
Interview, 323. 
Intolercbile, Lat., 679. 
Intolerable, 658. 
Intolerandum, Lat., 679. 
Intoleraturum, Lat., 679. 
Intricate, 325. 
Intrigue, 325. 
Invective, 673. 
Inverse, 323. 
Investigable, 658. 
Invincible, 658. 
Invisible, 660. 
To Inwheel, 546. 
Irasci, Lat., 529. 
Irascible, 658. 
Ire, Lat., 528, 628. 
Irrefragable, 658. 
Irrcmissible, 658. 
Isosceles, 637. 
Issue, 325. 
Is to, 678. 
Is to be, 678, 680. 
•It, 339, 342, 343, 345. 

To Jar, 442. 
Jardin, Fr., 509. 
Jaune, Fr., 423. 
Jcf, xi. 

Jcgcns, Dutch, 231. 
Join, 172, 180. 
Joint, 347. 
Jubilee, 326. 
Judex, Lat., 312. 
Judicature, 679. 
Jugular, 637. 
Jugum, Lat., 450, 530. 
Junto, 322. 
Jui-at, 322. 



732 



INDEX. 



Juiy, 822. 
Jus, Lat., 303, 304. 
'Just, 305, 314. 

Kabel, Dutch, 666. 

Keele, 552. 

Keg, 586. 

Kearse, not worth a, 360. 

Key, 586. 

Knave, 622, 623. 

To Knead, 542. 

Knee, 492. 

KneU, 455. 

Knight, 407. 

KnoU, 455. 

Knot, 407. 

Knowable, 667. 

Knuckle, 492. 

Xwpis, 178. 

Kruimelen, Dutch, 666. ^- 

Labial, 637. 

Laccio, Ital., 570. 

Lace, 567. 

Lachrymal, 637- 

Lacteal, 638. 

•Lady, 418, 421. 

Lapse, 325. 

Laqueus, Lat., 569, 

Lascher, Fr., 324. 

Lasciare, Ital., 324. 
HLash, 323. 

Last, 449. 
-^atch, 567. 

Latchet, 567. 

Lateral, 637. 

Latter math, 619. 

Laudable, 658, 668. 

Laudevole, Ital., 668. x. 

Laugh, 503. 

Laus, Lat., 530. 
•Law, 306, 310. 

Lawsuit, 323. 

Laxative, 672. 

Lay, 592. 

Least, 141, et seqq. 

Leaven, 353. 

Lectus, Lat., 655. 

♦Left, 307. 

Legacy, 325. 

Legal, 639. 

Legate, 325. 

Legend, 676, 677- 

Legible, 658. 

Legislature, 679. 

Lembus, Lat., 536. 

Length, 620. 

Lenitive, 672. 

Leoniue, 638. 

Les, 89, 90, 120. 

Less, 90, 91, 141, 142. 
•Lest, 70, 119, Ul^etseqq. 



Lester, Fr., 449. 

Levante, Span,, 601. 

Levee, 322. 

Levy, 322. 

Lewd, 592, 

Lew-warm, 551, 

Lex, Lat., 306, 307. 

Liable, 658. 

Libidinous, 638, 

Licet, Lat,, 100. 

Lid, 447, 

Lief, 261, 

Liege, 322, 

Liever, 261. 

Lievest, 261, 

Lift, 419, 420. 

Light, 620, 

Like, 31. 

Limb, 535, 

Limbo, 535, 

Limbus, Lat,, 536. 

Lin, 334. 

Ling, xxi. 

Littoral, 638. 

Lo, 264, 

Load, 423, 

Loaf, 416, 417. 

Loan, 564. 

Local, 638. 

Lock, 449. 

Loft, 419, 

Lofty, 419. 

Log, 423. 

Long, 231, 427, 584. xx. 

To Long, 235. 

Longus, Lat., 530, 584. 

Loos, Laus, 530, 531. 

Loose, 492. 

Loquacious, 637. 

Lord, 415. 

Lore, 563. 

Los, Fr., 531. 

Lose, 492. 

Loss, 492. 

Lot, 313, 447, 

Lot-tellers, 540. 

Loud, 329, 

Low, 561, 

Lown, 561, 

Lowt, 561, 

Loyal, 639, 

Lucid, 638. 

Luck, 313, 567, 

Lucrative, 639, 672. 

Luke- warm, 551. 

Lumen, Lat., 583. 

Luminous, 638, 

Lunar, 638, 

Lust, 524, 

Ly, 252, 

Ma, Ital, 110, 111, 113, 



Maar, Dutch, 118. 
Mad, 559, 
Magnanimous, 637. 
Mainprize, 322, 
Mais, Fr,, 110, 113. 
Male, 637. 
Malleable, 658. 
Malt, 352, 353. 
Mandate, 306. 
Manifesto, 323. 
Manual, 637. 
Manus, Lat., 304. 
Manuscript, 325. 
-}• Many, 592, et seqq. 
Marine, 638, 
Marital, 637. 
Maritime, 638. 
Martial, 639. 
Mas, Span., 110, 113. 
Masculine, 637. 
Maternal, 637. 
Math, 618. 
Matto, Ital., 559. 
Maybe, 267. 
Mayhap, 267. 
Mead, 585. 
Meat, 550. 
Meath, 620. 
Medio dia, Span., 601. 
Medicinable, 668. 
Medicinal, 668. 
Medley, 229, 
Medullary, 637. 
Meiere, Lat., 528, 
Mellem, Dan., 229. 
Memorable, Fr., 665. 
Memorandum, 677. 
Memorevole, Ital., 665. 
Mental, 637. 
Mentecatto, Ital., 533. 
Mercenary, 639. 
Merciable, 666. 
Meretricious, 637. 
Mcretrix, Lat., 409. 
Meridian, 638. 
Merit, 313, 324. 
Me seemeth, xxxi. 
Mess, 550. 
Messo, Ital., 550. 
Mete, 559, 

Methinks, 292, 609. xxx. 
Mets, Fr., 550. 
Mcurtre, Fr., 614. 
Mezzotinto, Ital., 322. 
Might, 620. 
Milch, 550. 
Military, 639. 
Milk, 550. 
Minatory, 639. 
Mingere, Lat., 527. 
Mint, 456. 
Minute, 321. 



INDEX. 



733 



Minute, 321. 

Mirth, 614. 

Miscellaneous, 638. 

Miscere, Lat., 528. 

Miscreant, 826. 

Miserable, 661 . 

Miserevole, Ital., 665. 

Missibile, 673. 

Missae, 658, 673. 

Missive, 673. 

Mist, 539. 

Misuse, 325. 
■^To Mix, 527, 528. 

Mixen, 527. 

Mod, Dan., 231. 

Moiening, 160, 236. 

Molere, 529. 

Mompeleu, Dutcli, 666. 

Moneta, Lat., 456. 

Money, 456. 

Monitory, 639. 

Mouster, 322. 

Month, 617. 

Morbid, 638. 

Morceau, Fr., 390. 
tiMore, 110, 111, 277. 

Mom, 459. 

Morning, 459. 

Morrow, 459. 

Mors, Lat., 530, 614. 

Morsel, 322, 390. 

Mortal, 637. 

Mortgagee, 326. 

ClOoji^, COon^e, 614. 
' Most, 277. 

Mostra, Ital., 322. 

Moth, 616. 

Motive, 673. 

Mott, 373. 

Moucher, Fr., 395, 560. 

Mould, 352, 353. 

Mouth, 616. 

Mow, 279. 

Moyennant, Fr., 160, 236. 

Much, 277. 

Muck, 527. 

Mulcere, Lat., 528. 

Mulgere, Lat., 529. 

Multiplicand, 677- 

Mumble, 666. 

Mundane, 638. 

'Mural, 638. 

Murther, 614. 

Muster, 322. 

Narcotic, 672. 
Narrow, 506. 
Nasal, 637. 
Natal, 637. 
Native, 637. 
Naval, 638. 
Nautical, 638. 



Nay, 294, 674. 
Near, 239, 506. 
Neath, 220, 221. 
Necare, Lat., 528. 
Neck, 492. 
Nectere, Lat., 529. 
Need, 542. 
Needs, 265. 
Needle, 542. 
Negative, 672. 
Neglect, 323. 
Nem^e, 89. 
Nemut, Lat., 89. 
Nequam, Lat., 623. 
Nesh, 554. 
Nest, 585. 
Net, 407, 
Nether, 220, 221. 
Nethermost, 220. 
Nevertheless, 71, 280. 
Next, 239. 
Nicchia, Ital., 493. 
Nicchio, Ital., 493. 
Nice, 554. 
Niche, Fr., 493. 
Niche, 493. 
Nick, 493. 
Nigh, 239. 
Night-rail, 475. 
Ninth, 620. 

Nisi, Lat., 91,99,115,134, 
No, 295, 674. 
Noble, 658, 660. 
Nock, 493. 
Nocturnal, 638. 
Nod, 450, 492. 
Nodus, Lat., 530. 
Non cale, Ital., 484. 
Nonchalance, Fr., 484. 
Nondescript, 325. 
Nonsense, 325. 
Nook, 493. 
Noonstcd, 240. 
Noord, Dutch, 600. 
Nord, Fr., 600. 
Nord, Germ., 600. 
Nord, Dan., 600. 
Nord, Span., 601. 
Norr, Swed., 601. 
North, 600. 
Not, 295. 
Notch, 493. 
Notwithstanding, 71. 
Noxious, 639. 
Nubes, I,at., 449. 
Nugatory, 639. 
Numb, 532. 
-Numscull, 532, 533. 
Nuncupative, 672. 
Nupta, Lat., 449. 
Nuptial, 639. 
Nym=Se, 89. 



Oak, lean, 450. 
Object, 325. 
Obstreperous, 639. 
Obvious, 638. 
Occident, Fr., 600. 
Occidental, 639. 
Occidente, Span., 601. 
Ocular, 637. 
Oculus, Lat., 530. 
Odd, 328. 

Odds and Ends, 328. 
Ode, 389. 
Odious, 638. 
Oeste, Span,, 601. 
Of, 198. 

Op bune, 347. xxiv. 
Offal, 550. 
Old, 450, 451. 
Olfactory, 637. 
Once, 288, 289. 
Onerous, 639. 
Only, 290, 291. 
Onorevole, Ital., 665. 
Oost, Dutch, 600. 
Ope, 451. 
Open, 451. 
Operative, 672. 
Opinionative, 673. 
Oppidan, 638. 
Opposite, 236, 319. 
Optative, 672. 
Optic, 637. 
Oral, 637. 
Orient, Fr., 600. 
Oriental, 639. 
Oriente, Span., 601. 
Orts, 550, 551. 
Ost, Germ., 600. 
Ost, Dan., 600. 
Oster, Swed., 601. 
Ouest, Fr., 600. 
Ought, 274. 
Oui, Fi-., 294. 
Outcept, 237. 
Outforth, 276. 
Outtake, 237- 
Outtaken, 237. 
Oval, 638. 
Oven, 367. 
Over, 247. 
Owl, 497. 
Oyes, 295. 

Pack, 574. 
Pact, 326. 
Page, 574. 
Page, Fr., 581, 
Pageant, 574. 
Pageantry, 574. 
Paggio, I'tal., 581. 
Pain, 519. 
Palliative, 673. 



734 



INDEX. 



Palpable, 658. 

Paltry, 319. 

Par, Fr., 180. 

Parable, 666. 

Parabola, Lat., 666. 

Paralytic, 672. 

Parochial, 639. 

Participle present, Addii. 

Note. 
Passive, 672. 
Pastoral, 637- 
Patch, 571. 
Patcherv, 574. 
Paternal, 637. 
Path, 584. 
Pathetic, 672. 
Pause, 319. 
Peace, 326. 
Peaceable, 668. 
Peaceful, 668. 
Pease, peasen, 360. 
Peccare, Lat., 529. 
Pectoral, 637. 
Pecuniary, 638. 
Pedal, 637. 
Pending, 236. 
Penetrabile, Lat., 661. 
Penetrable, 658. 
Penn, 463. 
Pensive, 637. 
Per, Lat. and Ital., 180. 
Peradventure, 267. 
Percase, 267. 
Perchance, 267. 
Perennial, 638. 
Perfect, 321. 
Perhaps, 267. 
Perilous, 639. 
Peripatetic, 672. 
Periphrastic, 672. 
Perquisite, 323. 
Personable, 666. 
Perspicuous, 637. 
Perverse, 323. 
Petere, Lat., 529. 
Pfinnig, Germ., 346. 
Piacevole, Ital., 665. 
To Pick, 451. 
La Picote, Fr., 453. 
Picote', Fr., 452. 
Piddle, 501. 
Pin, 462. 

Pipkin, Pippin, 67. 
Piquer, Fr., 452. 
Pish, 574. 
Pit, 452. 
Plastic, 672. 
Plausible, 658. 
Plea, 326. 
Pleasurable, 661. 
Pledge, 395. 
Pliable, 658. 



Plot, 895. 
Plough, 552. 
Ploughshare, 429. 
To Ply, 552. 
Tlvivixa, 315. 
Pock, 451. 
Point, 322. 
Poise, 324. 
Poke, 451. 
Polite, 326. 
Poltroon, 319. 
Pond, 462. 
Poniente, Span., 601. 
Pool, 501. 
Popular, 639. 
Populous, 639. 
Por, Span., 180. 
Pore, 322. 
Uopvq, 409. 
Portable, 658. 
Portent, 323. 
Portrait, 322. 
Pose, 72. 
Possible, 658. 
Post, 319. 
Postscript, 325. 
Pot, 452. 
Potscars, 429. 
Potshreds, 429. 
Pound, 462. 
Pox, 451. 
Praiseful, 668. 
Prasinus, Lat., 423. 
Prebend, 676, 677- 
Precedent, 323. 
Precept, 309, 325. 
Precinct, 323. 
Precise, 325. 
Prefect, 321. 
Prefix, 325. 
Premisses, 321. 
Prepositions, xix. 
Prerogative, 672. 
Presbyterian, 637. 
Prescript, 325. 
Press, 326. 
Pretext, 325. 
Price, 322. 
Priniscval, 639. 
Prithee, 266. 
Private, 326. 
Privy, 326. 
Prize, 322. 
Probable, 658. 
Probare, Lat., 529. 
Process, 323. 
Produce, 321. 
Product, 321. 
Profit, 321. 
Profitable, 661. 
Profittcvolc, Ital, 665. 
Prognostic, 672. 



Progress, 325. 
Progressive, 672. 
Project, 325. 
Projectile, 658. 
Promiscuous, 638. 
Promise, 321. 
Prompt, 322. 
Proof, 565. 
Prophetic, 672. 
Prophylactic, 672. 
Proportionable, 661. 
Proporzionevole, Ital., 665. 
Proscript, 325. 
Prospect, 324. 
Prostitute, 325, 411. 
Proud, 560. 
Providence, 313, 315. 
Proviso, 322. 
Provocative, 673. 
Prudence, 313, 315. 
Pshaw, 574. 
^ux^, 315. 
Public, 639. 
Paddle, 501. 
Puerile, 637. 
Pulmonary, 637. 
Pulse, 322. 
Pump, 534. 
Punctual, 639. 
Punsere, Lat., 529. 
Punire, Lat., 529. 
Punk, 414. 
Punto, 322. 
Purgative, 672. 
Pursuit, 323. 
Pm-view, 323. 
Pusillanimous, 637. 
Put case, 72. 
Pynban, 463. 

Quadrant, 326. 
Quag, 585. 
Quai, 586. 
Qualis, Lat., 566. 
Quamlibct, Lat., 100. 
Quamvis, Lat., 100. 
Quantitative, 672. 
Quantumvis, Lat., 100. 
Qua re, Lat., 209. 
Quassare, Lat., 529. 
Quatcre, Lat., 529. 
Quay, 586. 
Quest, 323. 
Quibble, 666. 
Quick, 540. 

■ Quicklv, 285. 

■ Quid, 332. 
Quidditative, 672. 
Quidditativus, Lat., 672. 
Quidlibet, Lat., 666. 
Quilt, 351. 

Quit, 324. 



INDEX. 



735 



Quite, 824. 
Quittance, 324. 
Quod, Lat., 47. 
Quoth, 593. 

Eabble, 666. 

Rabula, Lat., 666. 
'Rack, 507, 546, 595. 

Racka, Dutch, 595. 

Racke, 595. 

Raddle, 493. 

Radical, 638. 

Raft, 432. 

Ragamuffin, 575. 

Ragionevole, Ital., 665. 

Raide, 475. 

Rail, 470. 

Railen, 476. 

Railing, 476. 

Rails, 470. 

Rain, 519. 

Raisonahle, Fr., 665. 

Rake, 507- 

RaUa, Lat., 475. 

Raperc, Lat., 529. 

Rate, 322. 

Rath, 281. 
'Rather, 281. 

Rathest, 281. 

Rational, 639. 

Ray, 470. 

Real, 637. 

Rear, 187- 

Reasonable, 661, 669. 

Receipt, 325. 

Recess, 323. 

Recluse, 320. 

Recompencc, 326. 

To Recover, 590. 

Recourse, 325. 

Rectum, Lat., 304. 

Reflux, 325. 

Regal, 637. 

Regard, 22, et seqq. 

Regilla, Lat., 475. 

Rcgo, Lat., 305. 

Regress, 325. 

Regular., 639. 

Relapse, o25. 

Relations, 674. 

Relative, 673, 674. 

Relict, 324. 

Rclique, 324. 

Remiss, 381. 

Remnant, 326. 

Remorse, 322. 

Rent, 313, 352. 

Reor, Lat., 608, 609. 

Repast, 326. 

Report, 326. 

Repose, 319. 

Reprieve, 322. 

Reprize, 322. 



Reproof, 565. 

Repulse, 322. 

Repute, 326. 

Request, 323. 

Requisite, 323 

Res, Lat., 608. 

Rescript, 325. 

Residue, 326. 

Respect, 324. 

Response, 324. 

Responsive, 672. 

Restraint, 323. 

Result, 322. 

RetaH, 566. 

Retinue, 324. 

Retreat, 322. 

Retrospect, 324. 

Revenue, 322. 

Reverend, 676, 677- 

Revereor, Lat., 608. 

Reverse, 323. 

Review, 323. 

Reward, 222, 223. 

Rex, Lat., 312. 

Rhime, 542. 

Ricco, Ital, 507. 

Rich, 507. 

Richardson, 179, 234, 587. 

Riche, 507. 

Riches, 507. 

Riehesse, 507. 

Richezza, Ital., 507- 

Rick, 507. 

Riddle, 258, 493. 

Ride vole, Ital, 665. 

Riffraff, 432. 

Rift, 347. 

To Rig, 472. 

A Rig, 470, 476. 

Rigel, Rigil, 470, 476. 

Riggen, 476. 

Rigging, 470, 476. 

Right, 302, et seqq., 314. 

Kigsie, 476. 

Rillen, 476. 

Rilling, 476. 

Rim, 497. 

Ripe, 542. 

Risible, 661. 

Ritto, Ital., 304. 

Road, 372. 

Roadstead, 240. 

Roast, 325. 

Robust, 639. 

Roche, Fr., 470. 

Rochet, 470. 

Rock, 470. 

Rocket, 470. 

Rogue, 470. 

Roky, Rooky, 599. 

Eommelen, Dutch, 666. 

Rong, 373, 379. 

Roof, 665. 



Room, 497, 498, 622. 
Roomth, 622. 
Ros, Lat., 530. 
Rosen, 358. 
Roush, 432. 
Round, 236. 
Rove, 373, 380. 
Royal, 637. 
Roynous, 482. 
Ruck, 470. 
Rug, 470. 
Rumble, 666. 
Rural, 638. 
Rustic, 638. 
Ruth, 615. 

Sacerdotal, 637. 
Safe, 560, 561. 
Sagitta, Lat., 396, 407- 
Saint, 313, 315. 
Sale, 507. 
Salival, 637. 
Salubrious, 638. 
Salutaiy, 638. 
Sanative, 67t. 
Sanguinary, 637. 
Sanguine, 637- 
Sans, 176, et seqq. 
Saro, Ital., 629. 
Saute, 322. 
Savage, 638. 
Save, 237. 
Saw, 566. 

Scaglia, Ital., 477, 483. 
Scala, Lat., 477, 483. 
Scald, 477, 483. 
Scale, 477, 483. 
Scales, 481. 
ScaU, 482, 483. 
Scalogna, Ital., 477, 483. 
Scar, 424. 

Scarce, Scarse, 285, 286. 
Scardale, 429. 
Scates, 396. 
Sceptic, 672. 
Scerre, Ital., 429. 
Schal, Germ., 483. 
Schaliau, Diitch, 484. 
Scheet, Dutch, 396, 406. 
Schelling, Dutch, 483. 
Schets, Dutch, 396, 406. 
Schiatta, Ital., 396. 
Schicra, Ital., 429. 
Schiuma, Ital., 534. 
Schizzo, Ital, 396. 
Schultens, 129. 
Sciarrare, Ital., 429. 
Scilicet, Lat., 267. 
Score, 424. 
Scot, 396. 
Scotto, 396. 
Scout, 396, 404, 405. 
Scowl, 477. 



736 



INDEX. 



Scrap, 550. 
Scribble, 666. 
Scribillare, Lat., 666. - 
Script, 325. 
ScuU; 477. 
Scum, 534. 
Scylan, 477. 
Second, 639. 

Secourable, Pr., 661, 665. 
Secret, 325. 
Sect, 322. 
Seldom, 286. 
Select, 323. 
Sembievole, Ital., 665. 
Semblable, 661, 665. 
Seminal, 658. ' 

Se non, Ital., 91. 
Sens, Er., 144. 
Sense, 325. 
Senseful, 663. 
Sensevole, Ital., 668. 
Sensibile, Lat., 663. 
Sensible, 658, 663. 
Sensitive, 663, 672. 
Sensitive, Ital, 663. 
Sensitivus, Lat., 675. 
Senza, Ital, 177- 
Sepelire, Lat., 440. 
Septentrion, Span., 601. 
Sequi, Lat., 528. 
Serpens, Lat., 533. 
Set, 71, 72. 
Set case, 72, 74. 
Shade, 591. 
Shadow, 591. 
Shaft, 137. 

Shale, 477. 

Shape, 484, 485. 

Shapeable, 666. 

Shard, 424. 

Shard-bone, 429. 

Share, 424. 

Share-bone, 429. 

Sharp, 507. 

Shaw, 591. 

Sheaf, 136, 137- 

Sheath, 615. 

Shed, 591. 

Sheen, 547. 

Sheer, 424. 

Sheers, 429. 

Sheet, 396. 

Shell, 477. 

Sherd, 330, 424. 

Shillen, 483. 

Shilling, 477, 482, 483. 

Ship, 484, 485. 

Shire, 424. 

Shirt, 424. 

Shit, 396. 

Shite, 396. 

Shittcn, 396. 

Shittle, 396. 



Shoal, 477. 

Shock, 564, 565. 

Shoe, Scyan, 407. 

Shone, 373. 

Shoot, 396. 

Shop, 484 

Shore, 424. 

Shorn, 424. 

Short, 424. 

Shot, 396. 

Shotten, 396. 

Shoulder, 477. 

Shout, 396. 

Shower, 424. 

Shred, 330, 424. 

Shrew, 457- 

Shrewd, 457- 

Shrift, 349. 

Shronk, 373, 380. 

Shroud, 485. 

Shrove, 372. 

Shrowds, 485. 

Shrub, 459. 

Shut, 396. 

Shuttle, 396. 

Shuttlecork, 396. 

Si, Lat., Ital, Fr., 99, 294. 

Sideral, 638. 

Sight, 620. 

Silveren, 358. 

Simplex, Lat., 312. 

Sin, Span., 178. 

Since, 70, 144, et seqq. 

717. 
Sine, Lat., 99, 115, 178. 
Sinister, 637- 
Sinistrous, 637. 
Sino, Span., 91. 
Si non, Fr., 91. 
Sinuous, 637. 
Sip, 407. 

Sith, 144, et seqq. 
Sithence, 145, 146. 
Sixth, 620. 
Sizeable, 666. 

SKAAQX, 484. 

Skellyis, Scot., 484. 

Sketch, 396. 

Skill, 477. 

Skiit, 424. 

Skit, 396, 401, 407. 

Skittish, 396, 406. 

Skool, 482. 

Slack, 506. 

Slate, 477. 

Sleet, 554. 

Sleeve, 584. 

Sleeveless, 584. 

Slip, 408. 

Slit, 408. 

Slode, 373, 381, 382. 

Slong, 373, 382. 



Slop, 408. 
Slope, 408. 
Slot, 408. 
Sloth, 615. 
Slouch, 562. 
Sloven, 562. 
Slough, 562. 
Slow, 562. 
Slug, 562. 
Sluice, 320. 
Slut, 562. 
Smear, 547- 
Smith, 616, 617- 
Smoke, 452. 
Smooth, 558. 
4^Smug, 560. 
Smut, 533. 
Snack, 535. 
Snail, 533. 
Snake, 533. 
To Suite, 395, 560. 
Snot, 395. - 
Snout, 395. 
Snow, 491. 
Snuff, 534. 
Snug, 533. 
So, 147, 566. 
Soccorevole, Ital., 665. 
Sociable, 669. 
Social, 669. 
Soder, Swed., 601. 

Solar, 638. 

Solazzevolc, Ital., 665. 

Sole, 639. 

Solitary, 639. 

Solvable, 669. 

Soluble, 658. 

Solvent, 669. 

Solutive, 672. 
4 Somerset, 322. 

Sonder, Germ., 178. 

Song, 373, 380, 389. 

Sonk, 373, 381. 

Sop, 407. 

Soporiferous, 639. 

Sore, 457. 

Soi-row, 457. 

Sorry, 457. 1^- 

Soup, 407. 

Sour, 457. 
- South, 600. 

Span, 293, 505, 506. 

Spanna, Ital., 506. 

Spanne, Germ., 506. 

Spannum, Lat., 506. 

Speakable, 666. 

Speech, 567. 

Spcrneudus, Lat., 678. 

Spick, 293. 

Spirare, Lat., 315, 528. 

Spirit, 313, 315. 

Spoil, 542. 

Spolium, Lat., 530. 



INDEX. 



737 



Spon, 373, 382. 

Spontaneous, 638. 

Spot, 395. 

Spouse, 324. 

Spout, 395. 

Sprong, 373, 382, 383. 

Sprout, 487. 

Spuere, Lat., 528. 

Spurt, 487. 

Sputare, Lat., 528. 

Stack, 509. 

Stag, 509. 

Stage, 509. ■ 

Stairs, 509. 

Stake, 466. 

Stalk, 509. 
~ Stark, 286, 287- 

Start, 440. 

Statute, 306, 325. 

Stavesacre, xxii. 

Stay, 509. 

Stead, 239, 240. 

Steak, 466. 

Stealth, 617. 

Stellar, 638. 

Stench, 535. 

Stepmother, 241. 
-Stern, 354, 355, 440. 

Stia, Ital., 518. 

Stick, 383, 384, 466. 

Stiff, 540. 

Stigma, 327. 

Stile, 278. 
" Still, 70, 93, 703. 
: Sting, 384. 
' Stipendiary, 639. 
L Stiff, 440." 
^Stirrup, 509. 
; Stitch, 466. 

Stitch-fallen, 469. 

Stoccata, Ital., 469. 

Stocco, Ital., 469. 

Stock, 373, 383, 384, 466. 

Stocken, 467- 

Stocking, 466, 467- 

Stocks, 466, 467. 

Stoke, 373, 383. 

Stoncu, 358. 

Stong, 373, ?H. 

Stoppel, Dutch, 660. 

Store, 440. 

Storm, 442. 

Story, 509. 

Stour, 440. 

Straightways, xxviii. 

Strain, 519. 

Strait, 323. 

StrawbciTy, 258. 

Sfrawen, 359. 

Siniv, 258. 

Sncct, 323. — 



Streights, 323. 
Strength, 615. 
Strepa, Lat., 519. 
Strict, 323. 
Stride, 519. 
Strind, 521. 
Strine, 521. 
Stroke, 373, 384, 39L 
Strong, 393. 
Strumpet, 415. 
Stuhble, 666. 
Stuc, Fr. 469. 
• Stucco, 466, 469. 
Stuck, 466. 
Stultus, Lat., 530. 
Stum, 524. 
Stunt, 532. 
Sturdy, 440. 
Sturt, 440. 
Stye, 509. 
Styptic, 672. 
Suadere, Lat., 529. 
Subject, 325. 
Sublunary, 638. 
Substance, 313, 315. 
Substitute, 325. 
Subtense, 323. 
Subtrahend, 677- 
Success, 323. 
Succinct, 323. 
Such, 566. 
Sud, Fr., 600. 
Sud, Germ., 600. 
Sud, Dan., 600. 
Sudorific, 639. 
Suds, 604. 
Sugerc, Lat., 528. 
Suit, 323. 
Suite, 323. 
Sup, 407. 
Superb, 638. 
Supercilious, 637- 
Superflux, 325. 
Supple, 332. 
Supplcx, Lat., 312, 332. 
Suppliant, 332. 
Support, 326. 
Suppose, 97, /?/ sfujq. 
Sur, Span., 601. 
Surfeit, 321. 
Surmise, 321. 
Surprise, 322. 
Survey, 323. 
Su.sccptive, 672. 
Suspense, 324. 
Sute, 323. 
Swadiblc, 660. 
Sworn, 373, 385. 
Swong, 373, 386. 
Swonk, 373, 386. 
Swoon, 501. 
Swoop, 500. 



SvTop, 500. 
Syllaba, Lat., 666. 
Syllabe, Fr., 666. 
Syllable, 666. 
SyUogistic, 673. 
Sylvan, 638. 
Sympathetic, 672. 
Synthetic, 672. 
Syjiiepan, 459. 

Table, 666. 

Tabula, Lat., 666. 

Tacit, 325. 

Tact, 325. 

Tag, 433. 

TaiHe, Fr., 434. 

TaUey, 427- 

Taint, 325. 

Tale, 566. 

Talis, Lat., 566. 

Tall, 434. 

Tally, 324, 428. 

Tangere, Lat., 529. 

Tangible, 658. 

To Tarre, 505. 

Tart, 505. 

Tatterdemalion, 575. 

TeUus, Lat, 618, 619. 

Temoin, Fi'., 160. 

Temporal, 638. 

Temporary, 638. 
-Ten, 452. 

Tenable, 658. 

Tenet, 324. 

Tent, 323. 

Tenth, 620. 

Terrestrial, 638. 

Testaceous, 638. 

Text, 325. 

Thack, 567. 

That, 41, et seqq., 70, 146, 
et seqq., 343, 085, et 
seqq., 719, et seqq. 

Thatch, 567. 

jjeah-hpae^efie, xvi. 

The, 345. 

Theft, 349. 

Thcnken, Fr. Th., xxxii. 

Thick, 540. 

Thicket, 540. 

Thigh, 540. 

Thin, 456. 

Thing, 609. 

To think, 609. xxxii. 

This, 344. 

jjohte, jjuhte, xxxii. 

Thong, 450. 

Though, 70, 90, 97, 704, 
705, XV. 

Thrice, 288. 

Thrift, 349. 

ToThring, 373,391. 

3 B 



738 



INDEX. 



Throng, 391. 
Through, 180. 
Thunken, IV. Th., xxxii. 
Tight, 350. 
Till,. 189, 197. 
*Tilt, 352. 
Tilth, 612. 
Timid, 638. 
Timorous, 638. 
Tina, Lat., 454. 
'To, 188, 189. ' -^ 
To Tine, 452. 
Tint, 325. 
To Tire, 526. 
Toast, 325. 
Todd, 410. 
Toil, 434. 
Toilers, Lat., 529. 
Toll, 434. 
Tome, 322. 
Tool, 434. 
To Beringe, 681. 
To Bringynge forth, 681. 
To Comynge, 680. 
To Cumenne, 680. 
To Defendynge, 681. 
To Demynge, 681. 
To Boynge, 681. 
To Drinkynge, 681. 
To-geanef , 231. 
To Etynge, 681. 
To Puttyng, 681. 
To Sendynge, 681. 
To Seynge,^681. 
To Suffrynge, 681. 
To Takynge, 681. 
To Tormentinge, 681. 
. To-wit, 72, 73, 266. 
To-piranne, 266. 
Toord, 525. 
Tooth, 616. 
Tort, Fr., 366. 
Torto, Ital., 366. 
-Town, 452. 
Trace, 322. 
Track, 322. 
Tract, 322. 
Tractable, 658. 
Trade, 584. 
Trajcct, 325. 
Trait, 322. 
Transcript, 325. 
Transit, 325. 
Transitive, 672. 
Transport, 326. 
Transverse, 323. 
Traverse, 323. 
Treat, 322. 
Treaty, 322. 
Treble, 666. 
Treeii, 358. 
Tiecnoii, 358. 



Tremble, 666. 
Tremulare, Ital., 666. 
Tresves, Treve, Yr., 523. 
Ti-ew, 607. 
Tribulare, Lat., 488. 
Ti-ibute, 313. 
Ti-ice, 292. 
Trim, 535. 
Triplum, Lat., 666. 
Trist, 638. 
Trite, 325. 
Trivial, 638. 
Triumph, 450. 
Troad, Trode, 584. 
Trouble, 488. 
To Trow, 606. 
-^ruce, 523. 
True, 313, 606. 
Trull, 412. 
Trumpery, 581. 
Trump, Trumpet, 450. 
Truth, 604, et seqq. xxxvii. 
Tuimelen, Dutch, 666. 
Tumble, 666. 
Tun, 452. 
Tuneable, 666. 
Tunnel, 453. 
Turd, 525. 
Tutelar, 637- 
Tutelary, 637. 
Tutor, Lat., 223. 
Tutus, Lat., 223. 
Twentieth, 620. 
Twice, 288. 
Twist, 351. 
To Tyne, 452. 

Udiro, Ital., 629. 
Umbilical, 637. 
Unanimous, 637. 
Unawares, xxviii. 
Under, 221. 
Understandabl 
Uncnarrable, (<" 
Universe, 323 
Unlace, 88. 
tf- Unless, 70, 
700, et seq 
ITnres])ective, 
Untcllybil, 6' 
Unter, Germ 
Unwalkative, 
Up, 247. 
Uphap, 267. 
Upon, 247, ' 
Usbergo, Ital., 4;ii). 
Use, 325. 
Ut. 688. 

T"t, Lat., 49, 50, 64. 
Uterine, 637- 
Uvoous, 638. 
rxorious. 637- 



Vaccine, 638. 
Vadere, Lat., 528. 
Vadum, Lat., 433. 
Yalable, Fr., 665. 
Valet, 410. 
Valevole, Ital., 665. 
Vallum, Lat., 504. 
Valuable, 669, 
Value* 317. 
Valueful, 669. 
Van, 187. 
Vanesco, Lat., 346. 
Vanus, Lat., 346. 
Varlet, 410. 
Vascular, 639. 
Vastare, Lat., 528. 
Venal, 639. 
Vendible, 658. 
Vendichevole, Ital., 665. 
Vengeable, 661, 668. 
Vengeful, 668. 
Venture, 679. 
Venturum, Lat., 680. 
Venue, 322. 
Verbal, 637- 
Verbose, 637- 
Verdict, 318. 
Vereor, Lat., 608. 
Vergeeven, Flem., xix. 
Veritable, 661. 
Veritevole, Ital., 665. 
Vermicular, 638. 
Vernal, 638. 
Vers, Fr., 226. 
Verse, 323. 
Versien, Veursien, Flora. 

xix. 
Verso, Ital., 226. . 
Versus, Lat., 226. 
Verum, Lat., 608. 
Very, 288. 
Vp^f Dan., 600. 



Visive, 672. 
Vista, Ital, 322. 
Visual, 637. 
Vital, 637. 
Vitreous, 638. 
Vituliue, 63S. 



INDEX. 



^39 



VivacioU3, 637. 
Vivid, 637. 
Vocative, 672. 
Volo, Lat., 628. 
Volvere, Lat., 528. 
Voluntary, 638. 
Voluptabilis, Lat., 662. 
Vomitive, 672. 
Von, Germ., 187. 
Vote, 324. 
Vow, 324. * 
Yu, Fr., 145. 
Vulgar, 637. 
Vulnerable, 658. 
Vulnerary, 639. 

Wasjes, 586. 
'Wake. 571. 
Wakefield, G., 403. 
Wall, 504, 505. 
Walrus, 514. 
Wan, 433, 434. 
Wand, 433, 434. 
Wane, 433, 434. 
Want, 351. 
War, 436, 438. 
Ward, 222, 436. 
Warm, 551, 552. 
Warmth, 611. 
Warp, 504. 
Warrant, 436. 
Warranty, 436. 
Warren, 436. 
Warrior, 436. 
Watch, 571, 572. 
Wath, 619. 
Weak, 543. 
Wealth, 612. 
pecan, .573. 
Weft, 349, 565. 
Weight, 621. 
Welkin, 544, 545. 
Well, 543. 



Wench, 411. 
Went, 584, 585. 
West, 600. 
West, Dutch, 600. 
West, Germ., 600. 
Wester, Swed., 601. ^- 

Wharf, 504. 
Wheel, 544. 
While, 197, 544, xxviii. 
W^hilom, xxviii. 
Whinid, 338, 345, xxxiii. 
White, 423. 
Whole, 587. 
Whore, 409. 
Wicked, 540. 
Width. 620. 
pig-jrmi^, 616. 
Wild, 329. 
Wile, 548. 
To Wit, 72, 73, 266. 
'Witch, 540. 
With, 172, ei seqq. 
Within, 116. 
Withinforth, 276. 
Witbout,70,115, 116, 172 
174, et seqq., 713, 714. 
Withoutforth, 276. 
Wizen, 540. 

WoU, 373, 386, 629, t 
Wond, 373, 386. 
Woof, 433, 565. 
Work, 621. 
Worth, 116. 
Wot, 373, 387. 
Wrat, Wrate, 447. 
Wrath, 493. 
Wreath, 493. 
Wreck, 546, 595. 
Wrench, 535. 
Wrest, 582. 
Wretch, 546. 
Wretched, 546. 
To Wric, 470. 



prujan, 470. 

Wright, 621. 

To Wrine, 470. 

Wrist, 582. 

W^rit, 406. 

Wrong, 314, 365, 373, 387, 

388. 
W^root, 447. 
Wroth, 493. 
W^rought, 621. 
Wry, 493. 



ard, 446, 508. 
Yardwand, 446. 
Yare, 446. 
Yam, 357. 
Yea, 294, 295, 674. 
Yeast, 603, 604. 
Yef, 79. 
Yell, 497. 
■YeUow, 423. 
Yes, 294, 295, 674. 
Yester, 522. 

.Yesterday, 519, 521, 522. 
Yestereven, 521. 
Yesternight, 521. ^ 

Yestersun, 521. 
Testy, yr'^15, 603, 604. 
Yet, 70, 93, 703. 
Yeve, 79, 80. 
Yf, 79. 
Ygo, 254. 
Ymbutan, xxii. 
Ymell, 226. 
Yoke, 450. 
Yold, 373, 388. 
Youngling, xx. 
Yjipan, 601. 
Ywis, xxix. 

Zonder, Dutch, 178. 

Zn, 195. 

Zuid, Dutch, 600. 



lb larib, Boiuilagc, Bowne, Boor, Bower, I^yr^i5> 
Church, xxxviii. 



ADDENDA. J^'f^^W^ 



P«o-fl "^fiO add 5th line from bottom, " asked an alms," Jets 3-3. ' , ^, . . 

P^e ix-E^tm-'s Notes. IJud^eJ of the Court of Kind's Sench.-] To Lord Clnef 

ttowTot habeas covp»s, if we did not say that there are precedents .hundant to 

lustifv the practice now objected to." „ ., tT \- n +i,« 

Palexxiii-rYmb ba r^nnan utan.] The placing of the Preposition after the 

mmmmmm 

'nvi;::^:rdtt^i;ret::tx^^^^^^^^^^ 

it. To the vast collection of the facts and phcTUomena ^^ f ^^^^^^ ^^-^^^^ J^.^bv 
which he has drawn from the records of successive ^S«^' [J^^-l^^^^^^^ 
those who would contribute to the further elucidation of the history ot tne Ji-ngi 
lansjuao-e. Nov. 20, 1839. 



In the first Edition, tlie following note accompanied tlie Errata •. 

"'rhei?;.«fa in many of the pages I tnnst l.ere place amongst the 
Erron of the printer: for the words which should snppy those M 
were as fair, as true, as honest and as legal, as any other part of tic 
book; and by them I should be very wilhng to stand or fall. He ha 
printed for me thirty years, and never before hesitated at any word 
which 1 employed." * 

* The Printer was Mr. Deodatus Bye. then at the head ot a l»»Sf '"f*'-;' Jte- 
i„g.„fficc irst, John's Sqnare, CIcrKcnwelh Mr..Johnson^ he pn hsh . hose ™e^ 

hazardous.— &6? aho Dedication to Part II. 



THE END. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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